/ .P3 



L3 
Copy 1 



iErnk Nnrmak i>«pmu^r^ 



II 



An l|tBt0nral ^ktUi\ 




Ig A. 31. ^nhh. 



ICOLE NORiALE SOPEBIEORE 



AN HISTORICAL SKETCH 



A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DE- 
PARTMENT OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND THE 
ARTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF 
PHILOSOPHY, JUNE, 1904. 



A. J. Ladd, M. A., Ph. D. 

PROFESSOB OF EDUCATION IN TEACHERS 

COLLEGE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

NORTH DAKOTA. 



THE HERALD PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Gkand Forks, North Dakota 



DOCTOR WILLIAM HAROLD PAYNE, 

That Keen Critic, Impartial Judge and Sane 
Writer of Educational Literature, this 
little Sketch is gratefully inscribed. 



Gift. 



icliigau UiiiV Lib 



^'Qu 



I 0* 



'V 



>f 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION i-3 

CHAPTER I 3-9 

Educational Activity During the French Revolution — 

Prior to the Revolution all educational activity in the 
hands of the church (3).— The National Assembly assumes 
full charge of education (4). — Existing schools closed and in- 
stitutions swept away (4).— The importance of the question 
realized and the difificult problem of construction attacked (4). 
The work of the National Assembly— the report of Talley- 
rand—referred to the next assembly (6).— The Legislative 
Assembly disregards the bequest and presents its own con- 
tribution in the rep'ort of Condorcet (b). — The contribution 
of the National Convention — the bill of Dounou — much in- 
ferior, theoretically, to former ones (7). — Comments and sum- 
mary. Permanent gain— the clear grasping of the funda- 
mental ideas of national education (7-9). 

CHAPTER II 9-14 

Establishment of the Normal School — 

General mention (9). — Historical references to normal 
school activity prior to the Revolution — Demia, LaSalle, Rol- 
land (9). — Lakanal's report and recommendation — Oct. 26, 
1794 (lo-ii). — The bill as passed (12-13). — Discussion prior 
to the passing (13-14). — General forecast. Selection of the 
Faculty (14). 

CHAPTER III 14-17 

Organization and Opening of the Normal School — 

Gathering of students (14). — Function of school and gen- 
eral program (14).— General management as outlined by La- 
kanal and Deleyre (16).— Opening (16).— Studentry (16-17). 

CHAPTER IV 17-24 

The Work of the Normal School — 

The work begun (17). — General confusion characteristic 
of the work of the early weeks (18-19).— The instruction, both 
in matter and method, very inappropriate (19-20).— Criticisms 
lead to official investigation (20).— Report of investigating 
committee, given by Dounou (20-21). — Decree of suppression 
(21).— Summary of the work done (21-22).— The "Jour- 
nal" (22-23). — Estimates of the value of the experiment by 
Compayre, Barante, and Biot (23-24). 



CHAPTER V 24-29 

Reorganization under Napoleon — 

Educational situation following the Revolution. Dou- 
nou's bill of 1795 not in full operation. Dissatisfaction (24- 
25).— Meeting of Councils General. Decree of 1806 making 
education a function of the State (25).— Organization of the 
Imperial University. The Decree of 1808 (25-26).— Reestab- 
lishment of the Normal School. The Decree (26).— Com- 
pletion of the organization in matters of detail: expenses, 
officials and general disciplinary regulations (27-28) .—Anal- 
ysis and explanation of restrictive measures (28-29). 

CHAPTER VI 29-34 

The Normal School from 18 10 to 1830— 

Normal School affiliated with the Paris Faculties instead 
of with the Special Schools as planned (29-30).— The reflex 
influence of the two (30).— Studies. Details as to the first 
vears (30-31).— Napoleon's plans not fully carried out— a 
wider scope given (30-31).— Effects of Restoration— a freer 
life and a broader outlook (31-32).— Criticized as a "nest of 
liberalism" (32).— Ordinance of 1821 creating "partial nor- 
mal schools" (32).— Suppression of Normal School (32).— 
Reestablishment in 1826 (33).— Revolution of 1830 gives 
new life (34). 

CHAPTER VII 35-46 

Reorganisation: Work from 1830 to 1848 — 

Foundation laying (35).— Admission (35).— Courses of 
Study, Section of Letters (37-39) ; Section of Science (39-40- 
Aggregation (41-42).— Faculty. Buildings (42-44).— Peda- 
gogical Aspects (44-46).— Discipline (46). 

CHAPTER Vni • 47-55 

The Normal School from 1830 to the Rcorganizaiion of the 
Present Time — 

Interesting topics that must be passed by (47-48). — Brief 
resume (48).— General outline of Period (48).— Gratuity (49). 
Aggregation (49-50).— Admission (50-51).— Curriculum 
(51-52).— Buildings (52).— Discipline (52-53).— Laboratories 
(53-54)- — Breadth of Scope (54-55)- 

CHAPTER IX 55-58 

Reorganization now in Progress — 

Development of the ficole Normale into a university 
rather than a Normal School (55).— Reason for change of 
characters-pedagogical instruction not being demanded, the 
emphasis was placed elsewhere (56). — Increasing valuation of 
pedagogical science makes another change necessary (56). 
Reorganization. Incorporation of the Normal School into the 
Sorbonne, becoming its Pedagogical Department 56-57)- 

Bibliography 58 



INTRODUCTION 



M. Guizot, in his History of Civilization. i has put forth the proud 
claim that France has ever been a sort of clearing-house for European 
ideas. He has claimed, for example, that before a new idea or principle 
of civilization could be accepted or made operative in the other 
European countries it must first have received the endorsement o£ 
France. Napoleon's assertion that a revolution in France is sure to 
be foUow^ed by revolutions in other European countries is to the point. 
Whether or not the boast could be sustained as a whole it is certainly 
true that many instances could be cited which would seem, at least, to 
give it color. 

It is not my purpose either to defend or challenge the statement 
beyond calling attention 'to the fact that for as much of truth as may 
be found within it there are many good and sufficient causes. The 
simple matters of soil, climate and mere geographical location, those 
most formative factors in the development of any people, have here 
exerted all their wonted influence; so that thus located and thus sup- 
plied, throwing out, for the moment, all other considerations, this 
people must needs have occupied a very commanding position in the 
onward march of the centuries. And it has. In peace and in war, in 
political experiments and in social theories, in theological controversies 
and in educational practices, she has ever played so strong a hand 
that the eyes of the world have followed her, always with interest, 
many times with wonder, and often with profit. 

In this introduction it is my purpose merely to prepare the way for 
an intelligent comprehension of the subject under discussion. From 
the general mention already made I now pass to very hasty survey of 
some of the most striking features connected with her educational 
leadership. 

In this field the activities of her people may not seem so stirring, 
they may not have made so much noise, as in some of the others, but 
yet they have been far reaching and telling. Before the beginning of 
the Christian era the present soil of France harbored and largely 
supported the most celebrated seats of learning west of Rome. I find 
Henry Bernard saying that in these early days Marseilles, at the 
mouth of the Rhone, was known far and wide as "the dispenser of 
Greek culture, not only to its citizens, but to disciples from all parts 
of Gaul and Germany." - He also calls attention to the value of the 
educational work of the Druids. He says, likewise, that during the 
early centuries of the Christian era and up to the very downfall of the 
Roman power, public educational institutions were found in nearly all 
of the larger towns of the present France. And after the decline of 
the pagan schools their places were taken by those of Christian origin 
and conducted in the monasteries and cathedrals. 



^Guizot: History of Civilization, i: i6. 
^Barnard: National Education, (1872) p. 197. 



2 £cole Normale Superieure 

Later, when, under the repressing influences of asceticism, bigotry 
and church domination, the dark night-clouds of ignorance had settled 
down and so nearly succeeded in putting an end to intellectual progress, 
it was from the home of the Franks that the first rays of light and 
promise shone forth. Thru the painstaking and intelligent efforts of 
the great Alcuin, well worthy of being the co-worker of the great Charles, 
these clouds were lifted. And a few centuries later, with her people 
thus more nearly ready, we see the Mediaeval Universities arise. They 
develop, play their large part in the upbuilding of this interesting 
people, and then either pass away or form the basis of more modern 
institutions. France likewise furnished a most favorable environment 
for another celebrated institution of these Middle Age centuries — the 
Teaching Congregation. From their founding up to the early days of 
the Revolution, when, with a wave of the hand, as it were, they were 
apparently swept away, nearly every one of the forty or more orders 
was successfully active in the educational work of France. 

The normal school movement, which is now recognized the world 
over as one of the most fundamental agencies in the development of 
any nation or people, had its origin in the French mind and first sunk 
its roots into the French soil. Educational France may well take pride 
in Demia and LaSalle. True, this work did not attract very wide 
attention, nor did it continue save among the Congregations, but the 
institution has scarcely once lapsed either in theory or practice. 

The pages of history cannot show a parallel to the educational 
activity put forth during the great Revolution. With what a grasp of 
fundamental principles, with what a breadth of view as to the im- 
portance of the question, with what a clearness of vision as to the 
far reaching consequences of the legislation in hand, and with what a 
clear recognition of the absolute necessity of wise legislation, did the 
statesmen of the Revolution try to handle the educational problem! 
How keenly they felt that it meant life or death to their State ! Well 
and trul;^ could Lakanal say: "Hopes the most brilliant, expectations 
the most universal were those of a new plan of education which should 
place the nation in a position to exercise worthily that sovereignty 
which had been rendered to her." ^ And as to results achieved thru 
that agitation and that multitudinous and contradictory legislation: they 
certainly cannot be summed up in M. Thery's word, "negation", nor in 
M. Duruy's, equally fruitless, "chimera". Rather does Compayre more 
intelligently sum up the situation when he says: "For every impartial ob- 
server it is certain that the Revolution opened a new era in education." * 

It is true, again, that the advanced positions were not maintained 
tho "a new era in education" was opened. This was due, however, not 
to the falsity of the conclusions reached but to the repressive hand of 
monarchical power which never wants an educated people. Note how 
eagerly and how quickly and how intelligently educational reform has 
arisen every time the power of that hand has been stayed for a moment. 
This is strikingly seen after the governmental changes of 1830 and of 
1871, and it can be discerned, even, following those of 1815 and of 1848. 
And the gains they have made have not once been wholly lost, so that, 
on the whole, progress has continued, now slowly, now rapidly, but 
always continued, until today France is second to no country in the 
comprehensiveness of her educational system or in the desire that her 
every son shall receive its benefits. 

The institution which it has been my profit to study and which it 
is now my pleasure to attempt to describe is an example of the pioneer 



^Hippeau: L'Instruction en France, pendant la Revolution, p. 411. 
*Compayre: History of Pedagogy, p. 363. 



£cole Normale Superieure 3 

work done by this interesting people. The "fi'Cole Normale", since 
1845 called the "£cole Normale Superieure", is one of the most interest- 
ing educational experiments ever tried, one which no other nation has 
ever tried, or probably ever will try, but one which France has somehow 
found, in spite of manifest contradictions, to be the very corner-stone 
of her educational progress. Note the salient features of this school 
and its great dissimilarity to all others will be at once appreciated. 

It was not at first, nor has it once been since, an ordinary normal 
school whose function it is to prepare young men and women for 
teaching children how to read and write. Not this, difficult as it always 
is, has been the problem of the "fi'Cole Normale". Something very 
different. Indeed, its function is caught sight of in the very name it 
has borne, "L'ficole Normale," "The Normal School," "The Superior 
Normal School". In its first conception it was to form and produce 
not merely teachers, but teachers of teachers, men themselves capable 
of directing the work of normal schools. Later, and during the greater 
portion of its history, there has been added to that first work another, 
thought by some to be greater yet, even the preparation of the teachers 
for the colleges of France — college professors. 

For students the "ficole Normale" has taken the choicest and 
keenest young men of the entire land, already well equipped, academ- 
ically, for honorable positions in life. It has provided for these the 
most learned masters and best teachers to be found. It has placed at 
their disposal the best equipment in library and laboratory facilities 
that money could obtain. It has made them interns, and thus has 
effectually kept away from them all distractions of the outside world 
and given them an opportunity for uninterrupted application and un- 
restricted search for the truth. As students it has made them free 
spirits roaming at will under wise and efficient guidance. It has there- 
fore been able to turn out men of mark, men who have distinguished 
themselves and rendered invaluable service to their country not only 
in the one profession of teaching for which they have been especially 
fitted, but in every department and activity of the nation's higher, 
freer life. 



Ecole Normale Superieure 



CHAPTER I. 

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY DURING THE FRENCH 
REVOLUTION. 

Before recording the actual founding of the institution under study 
it will be necessary to state a few facts as to existing conditions which 
really led to its founding. 

In spite of the fact already stated that from the very beginning 
the French people have paid much attention to educational matters, and 
even that important educational movements have originated among 
them, it is true that prior to the Revolution the education of the 
French people had ever been in the hands of the church. By means 
of the various "teaching congregations", notably the Jesuits, Christian 
Brothers and Oratorians, the great educational work of the country 
was being done. Not till Revolutionary times did France as a nation 
really try, strongly and efifectively, to face the problem of the edu- 
cation of her people. 

True, Ion"- before this, dissatisfied with the work of the church, 
fearing that thru it France was being bound hand and foot by that 
ever active and purposeful ecclesiastical organization, many of her 
far-seeing statesmen had put forth efforts looking toward a change. 
For some time, it will be remembered, the Parliamentarians had striven 
to shake off what they thought to be an incubus and in 1762 really 
thought they had accomplished their purpose when the King signed 
the decree expelling the Jesuits from France. But this was only half 
a victory, and short-lived at that. And it touched but one phase of the 
great educational problem. 

It is true that from time to time as the centuries passed the gov- 
ernment did put forth educational activity, even that some worthy 
institutions were founded and maintained as, for example, the Univer- 
sity of Paris and the College of France. But all such acts simply 
touched, as it were, the fringes of the garment. Up to the very 
opening of the great struggle the educational fabric itself was in the 
hands of the church. But no longer. 

No immediate action was taken hostile to existing educational prac- 
tices, yet the National Assembly did at the very start begin the dis- 
cussion of educational problems in such a way as to spread alarm 
thruout all the teaching organizations. It assumed the right to handle 
the whole question and to plan an organization as tho nothing were being 
done. All this greatly distressed the workers and had the effect of 
practically closing existing schools. To quote from Barnard: 

"The universities, constrained particularly in their moral life, de- 
prived of this consciousness of their future, one of the primordial ele- 
ments of the existence of institutions, as of man, died, so to speak, a 
voluntary death." 1 And what was true of the universities was almost 
equally true of the teaching congregations. 

Finally, the long expected blows came. On March 8th, 1893, all 
college properties were ordered sold and the proceeds given to the 
State. And in the follov.'ing September all higher institutions of France 
were abolished. To quote from Barnard: "So perished the ancient 
University of Paris, so perished the similar institutions to which it had 



^Barnard: National Education, (1872) p. 210. 



&cole Normale Superieiire 5 

given rise; without even the nominal honor of a death sentence and 
without the special exertion of any power for that end." - 

Educational chaos followed: One writer says, "After this event, 
during four years, there was neither a university nor a college in ex- 
istence in all France." ^ And the situation was almost as bad in ele- 
mentary as in higher education, so that it would scarce be an exaggera- 
tion to say that the Revolution at once swept out of existence every 
educational agency in use and that for several years there was the 
astounding spectacle of a nation without schools. 

But such a condition could not long endure. From every quarter 
of France, from every class of her people, complaints poured in upon 
the Assemblies for what was generally considered the wanton de- 
struction of the educational means that had been so long at their 
doors. Appeals also were multiplied, some for the reinstatement of 
the old teaching congregations, others for a new organization, but all 
for educational opportunities for the young of France. 

Nor were the Assemblies unwilling to act. As already suggested, 
many of the leaders, from the very first, clearly and fully appreciated 
the situation and at once set to work to construct that which would 
not only satisfy the demands constantly being made. but. as well, furnish 
France with such a system of education as would continuously equip 
her people to play nobly, worthily and successfully the newer, larger 
role upon which she had just entered. They wished to make their 
new watchword, 'iibertv. fraternity and equality," a reality among 
them and wanted an educational system commensurate with its spirit 
and breadth. 

But the problem was a vast one. They had nothing to begin with. 
Everything had been swept away. They had to begin at the verj' bot- 
tom. The task was herculean. And to make matters so much the 
worse they had never had any experience in planning am' kind of a 
large national undertaking. The governmental work of France had 
never been much in the hands of her people and now for the first time 
in 175 years the States General had been summoned. And as from the 
vantage point of today we look back upon the Revolutionary Assemblies 
the wonder is not that they did not act in a saner manner and accomplish 
greater results but rather that in dealing with so many difficult and 
far-reaching problems, and all new to them, they showed as much sanity 
as they did. The wonder is that, especially in educational matters, they 
could accomplish anything. It is nothing less than marvellous that a 
"new era in education" could result. 

But even tho the men of the Revolution had had no practical legis- 
lative experience in educational matters many of them were deep, 
careful thinkers and all of them terribly in earnest. Some of them 
realized that it was a matter of life and death and their efforts at legis- 
lation clearly reveal the fact. As Dr. Payne says. "The educational 
legislation of the French Revolution, apparently so inconsiderate, so 
vacillating, and so fruitless, betrays the instinctive feeling of a nation 
in peril, that the only constitutional means of regeneration is universal 
instruction, intellectual and moral." * Realizing the immense importance 
to them of a sound educational system they attacked the problem with 
that same energy that has characterized them in all stages of their 
history. The matter must be handled in a tlioro. comprehensize manner. 
It must be looked at from all sides. France had entered upon a new 



2Ibid., 211. 

^American Quarterly Review. IX: 22. Article on "The University 

of France" by Rev. Robert Baird. 
^Compayre: History of Pedagogy, p. 411, in Analytical Summary by 

the translator. Dr. Payne. 



6 £cole Normale Superieure 

life. Her educational system must be new. It must contain nothing 
suggestive of the old order of things. The old m.onarchy must not be 
allowed to contribute anything, no matter how well it had served in 
days past. And more difficult yet, the new system must suit the ma- 
jority. How difficult ! Is it any wonder that scheme after scheme was 
brought forward only to be rejected? that system after system was 
laboriously wrought out only to make place for a newer? But yet, all 
was not vain, the empty, formless vaporings of sentimental enthusiasts. 
By no means. In the early days of the Revolution Mirabeau wrote, 
"Those who desire that the peasant may not know how to read or 
write, have doubtless made a patrimony of his ignorance, and their 
motives are not difficult to appreciate." ^ 

In September, 1791, the work of the National Assembly drew to 
a close. It had accomplished the purpose set forth in the memorable 
oath taken on the 26th of June, 1789, "never to separate till the con- 
stitution of the kingdom was established and founded on a solid basis." 
On the 14th of September that constitution was solemnly ratified and 
duly signed by the King, and on the 30th the Assembly adjourned. But 
what had it done for the education of the people? No schools had been 
established, it is true, nor any systematic plan of work agreed upon. 
But yet, in the constitution which they hoped would ever after be the 
fundamental law of the land the following is found: "There shall be 
created and organized a svstem of public instruction, common to all 
citizens, gratuitous with respect to those branches of instruction which 
are indispensable for all men, and the establishment of which shall be 
gradually distributed according to the divisions of the realm." ® 

For some time, under the general direction of the Committee of 
Public Instruction, M. de Talleyrand-perigord had been engaged on 
the details of a system of education that should embody the generous 
thought of this article. 

His report was completed, accepted by the committee and, on 
Sept. 25th, in its name presented to the Assembly. Of this report I 
quote from Barnard: "The essential features of a complete system, 
from the knowledge necessary to constitute a useful citizen and a good 
man, and the amusements of the whole people, to the fine arts and the 
highest branches of ancient and modern literature, and the further ad- 
vancement of the sciences, were discussed and arranged with a fulness 
and logical connection not surpassed by any similar public document 
in any country at that date." '' And no one, it seems to me, who will 
carefully read the report will dissent from Mr. Barnard's estimate. 
Nay, more, he will find very much that is abreast with our best thought 
of today. I quote a single article, the second, that shows the uni- 
versality of its spirit and connects it closely with the article of the con- 
stitution already quoted: "The primary schools shall be free and open 
to the children of all citizens without distinction." ^ 

His plan embraced four distinct grades of instruction, primary 
schools for the rural districts, secondary schools for the villages, special 
and professional schools for the chief cities and sort of a University, 
called the National Institute, at Paris. The phase of the plan attracting 
and giving it its greatest popularity was the provision for rural schools 
in which the children of peasants and workmen, up to this time wholly 
unprovided for, were to enjoy educational advantages. 

But the Legislative Assembly, beginning its sitting in September, in- 



''Compayre: Ibid., p. 369. 

^Greard: La Legislation de LTnstructicn Primaire en France, II: i. 

''Barnard: National Education, (1872) p. 205. 

^Greard: Ibid., p. 2. 



Ecole Normale Supericure 7 

stead of discussing the plan submitted, appointed its own committee and 
the committee its own spokesman, Condercet, and proceeded to begin 
the construction all over again. But not till April of the next year, 
1792, was the report presented and at that time so stirring were the 
events transpiring, so thoroly wrought up was the whole nation that, 
as Buisson remarks, "the report and the five memoirs accompanying 
it exercised only a feeble influence on the Assembly and on public 
opinion." And this, too, in spite of the fact that the document was of 
such a character as to call from one of the foremost of the present edu- 
cators of France this statement of high appreciation! "Of all the edu- 
cational undertakings of the Revolution the most remarkable is that 
of Condorcet." ^ 

With this report the Legislative Assembly did practically the same 
that the National Assembly had already done with that of Talleyrand — 
it passed it on for the consideration of the next Assembly. And nothing 
more. Wherein, then, lay its value? In itself. For as the report of 
Talleyrand had been the basis of that of Condorcet, so now, Condorcet's, 
to use Compayre's words, "remained thruout the duration of the Con- 
vention, the widely accessible source whence the legislators of that 
time, like Romme, Bouquirer, and Lakanel drew their inspiration." ^ 

The Legislative Assembly adjourns. The National Convention meets 
and begins its work. Now, surely, something will be done for, as 
Buisson puts it, "of all the Assemblies that have governed France, the 
National Convention is the 6ne most fully occupied with public in- 
struction." 1 

Yes, it was occupied with thoughts on public instruction, so fully 
occupied that bill after bill was presented, many of them passed and 
some the next day recalled. Scheme after scheme was considered, some 
of which were wise but many containing but dreams and visions im- 
possible of realization. But not a single primary school did the com- 
mittee open and but three oi a higher order and even these, because 
of their extreme impracticability, were doomed to a speedy death. 

It has even been urged by some that the Convention went back- 
ward, that her final enactment was much inferior to the early suggestions 
of the National Assembly as shown both in the constitutional provision 
already cited and in the systems of Talleyrand and Condorcet. That 
is true, the bill offered by its principal author, Dounou, and which was 
finally passed Oct. 25th, 1795, just before the Convention ceased its 
labors, omitted some of the best provisions of the earlier ones. For 
example, the number of rural schools was greatly reduced and they to 
be placed only in the most thickly populated districts. Instruction was 
not to be gratuitous. All that the State was to contribute toward the 
support of the schools were the class rooms and garden plots for the 
teachers. The teachers' salaries were to be wholly made up from in- 
dividual tuition fees. With this as a basis no compulsory attendance 
was contemplated. The program of studies, too, was narrowed, in the 
words of Compayre, "to reading, writing, numbers and the elements of 
republican morality." 

But let us take the circumstances into consideration. The Con- 
vention was worn out, thoroly exhausted. It contained but few su- 
perior minds. It could not appreciate the breadth and depth, the 
fundamental comprehensiveness, of the earlier systems. And yet it was 
the ruling power and its enactment must be the law of the land until 
superceded by another. Dounou knew all this and realizing the truth 
of the old saw that "half a loaf is better than no bread," proposed a 

*Compayre : Ibid., p. 379. 

^Buisson Dictionnaire de Pedagogic Ire. Partie, \: 520. 



8 Ecolc Normalc Supericiire 

system that was not so far beyond the Convention's comprehension as 
to make its passage impossible and its realization out of the question. 
And, again, doubtless he appreciated the general unpreparedness of the 
nation for valuing, and using a more complete system. In a word, 
Dounou asked for and received all that the Convention would grant 
and all that the people would use. And a glance at his plan, tho 
revealing less than the earlier promises yet reveals a decided improve- 
ment, especially in primary instruction, over general existing practices 
at the opening of the Revolution. And as Compayre says: "Doubtless 
the measure of Dounou had over all previous measures the advantage 
of being applied, and o'f not remaining a dead letter." - 

But yet, I feel that not in the enactment alone, even tho a step 
in advance, are we to find the best, the ripest and most fruitful educa- 
tional thought of the Revolution. Let us seek it in the conclusions not of 
the Revolution's decrepid old age but of its ripe manhood in the thought 
of Talleyrand, Condorcet and Lakanal. 

Let us stop for a moment, then, and see wherein anything had 
been done that could be used as a basis for a "new era in education." 
At the dissolution of the National Convention the Revolution had been 
in progress for more than six years, and on the surface the only changes 
seemed to be of a destructive character. The existing schools had been 
swept away, the religious bodies, in whose hands had been practically 
all of elementary education, forbidden to teach, and yet nothing had 
been put in their places. 

But tho the children were not being educated, the men of the 
times were, educated not in the fundamentals of reading writing and 
arithmetic it is true, (these they already possessed) but in the elements 
of educational statesmanship and legislation. As never before the at- 
tention of the leaders of thought and action thruout the whole of France 
had been directed to education. And thru this direction they were 
learning many things. 

Thru long continued thought and agitation, thru discussion and 
debate, it had at last become a part of the consciousness of France that 
for her very safety there should, in the words of her first constitution, 
"be created and organized a system of public instruction, common to all 
citisens, and gratuitous zvith respect to those branches of instruction 
■which are indispensable for all men." Here we have universality and 
gratuity clearly stated with state control and support at least implied. 
And another thought followed later as a natural consequence — namely, 
compulsory attendance. And yet, one more, a great institution of which 
is the subject of this study, the Normal School idea. Their grasping 
of this thought that "the starting point of educational reform is the 
instruction and inspiration of the teaching body' :' ^ that they should have 
recognized so clearly that, as Dr. Payne puts it, "the Normal School 
lies, at the very basis of national safety and prosperity," seems to 
me most remarkable. And it is so exceedingly significant that one of 
the very first real educational institutions that the convention founded 
was a Normal School — the "ficole Normale," to the study of which I 
shall shortly pass. 

At first thought it may seem that I am placing undue emphasis upon 
these conclusions of Revolutionary study and thought, upon universal- 
ity, gratuity, state control, compulsory attendance and the normal idea. 
These fundamental conceptions are so common to us that we scarcely 
give them a second thought. But this was not the case in any land as 
early as the days of the French Revolution. True, the ideas were not 



^Compayre: History of Pedagogy, p. 411. 
^Compayre: Ibid., p. 411. 



Ecole Normale Superieure g 

altogether new. many of them were old. Pestalozzi was holding them, 
Comenius had held all save the Normal idea and possibly that by impli- 
cation ; and Luther had clearly held them all and strongly advocated 
them. But these were individual men, nor did they even represent gov- 
erning bodies. Nowhere, so far as I can learn, were these fundamental 
educational ideas so clearly a part of the national thought, at this time, 
as in France. Certainly it is true that nowhere were they in general 
practice, not a single one of them. The nearest approach was in Prussia 
where the value of the Normal School was clearly recognized, but even 
Prussia had to wait for a full grasp of the whole. 

But in France, before the close of the Revolution, all of these ideas, 
fundamental for educational prosperity and essential to national safety, 
were clearly grasped by the leaders of educational thought and action. 
I do not mean by this to imply that, even at the close of the Revolution, 
these thoughts were immediately put into practice. Far, far from that. 
Many other things had to be learned before that could be done. 

Amid the difficulties of the times they soon learned that a compre- 
hensive educational system planned by the state, conducted by the state 
and supported by the state was an undertaking of gigantic proportions, 
vaster, more burdensome by far than they had at first conceived. Thru 
many attempts at constructive work and thru many mistakes already 
made, it was at last clearly seen that a complete system of public in- 
struction faultlessly drawn up on paper and even spread upon the 
statute books was quite a dififerent thing from that same system in suc- 
cessful operation in every commune in France. This they had begun 
to learn, that tho a stable Republic rests upon general enlightenment 
and that upon a wide spread system of popular education, such enlight- 
enment and such a system of education cannot be called into being by 
the stroke of a pen, but that on the contrary, they are the outcome, the 
finished products, of the enlightened, persistent and heroic work of 
years, aye, of generations. 

No, these advanced ideas, so clearly grasped, were not immediately 
put into practice. There were difficulties, seen and unseen, to overcome; 
there were checks, expected and unexpected to meet. It has taken years 
and years. It has taken generations. But the program outlined in 
Revolutionary days is the one which the great nation has ever striven 
to realize; the standards set so long ago and amid such troublous times 
are the ones which have ever been her educational goals. She has 
reached them at last and today presents before the world as finely con- 
structed an educational system as can be found in successful operation. 



10 £cole Normale Superieure 

CHAPTER II. 

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL. 

To show that these conceptions had taken deep hold of the Conven- 
tion, that this great body had the courage of its educational convictions 
and that it was not content with mere paper systems, it is but necessary to 
record the establishment of a specific institution, the very crown of the 
system — "L'Bcole Normale" — the Normal School, in October, 1794. The 
fact that the school was short-lived militates against neither the depth 
or their conviction nor the advisability of establishing Normal Schools. 
It simply demonstrates two facts, already cited in speaking of the legis- 
lative results of the Revolution and of Dounou's educational leadership, 
namely, -that tho an ideal system had been conceived yet the Convention 
was incapable of putting it into successful operation, and that the country 
at large was not ready to use such a system. Nay, more, it is probably 
true that the very experiment of which we are speaking contributed greatly 
to Dounou's clear perception of the situation and thus taught him a 
needed lesson in practicality. 

Tho the Normal School idea was not new to France, inasmuch as 
both Demia and LaSalle had, in the closing years of the previous century, 
conducted public schools whose avowed purpose was the education of 
teachers, and inasmuch as in various teaching congregations, now sus- 
pended, special efforts had long been put forth looking to this same end, 
there was not at the opening of the Revolution a single bona fide normal 
school in France— -probably had not been for nearly a century. 

The first relatively modern recommendation of such an institution was 
made in 1763, shortly after the expulsion of the Jesuits. The State was 
seeking to lay its hands upon the entire matter of public instruction. 
Teachers would be needed both to supply the places made vacant by the 
expulsion and also to fill the new places created by the desired extensions. 
No more serious problem was presented than the supply of these teachers. 
From that time on, up to the very opening of the great struggle, plan after 
plan was suggested for their recruitment. I mention but a single one, and 
this one because it seems to have had much in common with the subject 
of this sketch. It was the recommendation of Rolland d'Erceville, Presi- 
dent of the Parliament of Paris. This able and enthusiastic promoter of 
state-supported education had been, for some time, a determined opponent 
of the Jesuits and when, largely owing to his efforts, they were finally to 
be expelled from France, he did all he could to fill the gap thus to be 
made in public instruction. Especially did he labor toward the education 
of teachers. His plan included a higher normal school for professors, 
who, when prepared, should take charge of the most important positions 
thruout the country. This thought originated in the University of Paris, 
but was worked out in detail by Rolland. The school, thus recommended, 
was to be very similar in plan of work, in general management and in 
function to the present Superior Normal School of France of which I 
write. It differed but slightly in function from the one really established 
in 1794. To show how nearly it approaches them, I quote from Compayre 
a general description : 

"The establishment was to be governed by professors drawn from the 
different faculties, according to the different subjects of instruction. The 
young men received on competitive examination were to be divided into 
three classes, corresponding to the three grades of admission. Within the 
establishment they were to take part in a series of discussions, after a 



£cole Normalc Superieure ii 

given time to submit to the tests for graduation, and finally to be placed 
in the colleges. Is it not true that there was no important addition to be 
made to this scheme? Rolland also required that pedagogics have a place 
among the studies of these future professors, and that definite and 
systematic instruction be given in this art, so important to teachers of 
youth." ^ 

But nothing permanent came from it, nor from any one of several 
more or less similar plans. The suggestion was not wholly lost or for- 
gotten, however. It was revived in 1790 by a professor in the College of 
Bar-le-Duc who, in addressing the National Assembly on education, recom- 
mended a "National School" and in explanation said, "I meaji by National 
School a school where all the professors of all the colleges of France 
shall come to learn the course of instruction given by the National 
Assembly and the manner of teaching it." 2 

The matter came up again on June 4th, 1794. Barere, speaking for 
the committee of public safety, in recommending the establishment of 
a military school, took occasion to say: "It (the committee) has thought 
to establish at Paris a school for the training of teachers who should 
then be scattered thruout the departments. This thought will be 
the object of another report." ^ But no such report was made by this 
committee. At least I can find no record of it. Buisson comes to the 
same conclusion. But Compayre proceeds upon the assumption that 
some definite action was taken, tho a year earlier than the date of 
Barere's report, for he says:' "Decreed June 2nd, 1793, the foundation 
of normal schools was the object of a report by Lakanal on October 
26th, 1794." * From Lakanal's introductory remarks, too, it would seem 
that some such action had been taken. In beginning his report he says: 
"I come in the name of your committee of public instruction, to present 
to you a plan of organization for the Normal School which you have 
decreed." ^ But however that may be, in October, 1794, the matter was 
formally presented to the Convention and, a few days later, the neces- 
sary decree passed. 

In presenting the matter to the Convention, Lakanal first explained 
the word "normal" as from the Latin norm, meaning type, and the 
Normal School he said, ought to be a type of all others. This Normal 
School at Paris was planned to be a training school for normal school 
principals who, when trained, should go the different departments and 
organize secondary normals. Rapidly tracing educational history thru- 
out the early years of the Revolution he mentions the suggestions of 
Talleyrand and says : "But the Constituent Assembly, wholly puffed up 
by the time and fatigued by all the destructions, had arrived at a mo- 
ment of grand creations without strength and without courage. Public 

instruction was referred to the Legislative Assembly The 

Legislative Assembly took up the matter and under the influence of 
Condorcet planned a vast and comprehensive work. But who could 
carry it out? A King who had the greatest interest in choking it? Or 
some administrative body which the King could easily bend to his will? 
Either the throne would destroy the instruction or the instruction would 
destroy the throne." ^ 

Nothing was done. Using Lakanal's words, "The National Conven- 



^Compayre : Les Doctrines de I'Education, II : 239. 

2L. Liard : L'Enseignement Superieure en France, 1 : 268. 

^Guillaume: Proces-Verbaux du Comite d'lnstruction Publique de 

la Convention Nationale, IV: 522. 
*Compayre: History of Pedagogy, p. 405. 

^Hippeau: LTnstruction en France pendant la Revolution, p. 405. 
^Hippeau: Ibi^., p. 411. 



12 £cole Normalc Superieiire 

tion appeared and the plan of instruction of the Legislative Assembly, 
like that of the Constituent Assembly, was only a pamphlet." "^ Con- 
tinuing, he shows that the terrible progress of events prevented, during 
the first two years of the Convention, any educational improvements. 
He adds, "Such has been the state of France, but that is in the past. 
. Europe yields to the power of the Republic, the Republic 

yields to the power of reason This is a time when it is 

necessary to bring together in a plan of instruction worthy of you, 
worthy of France and of human kind, the knowledge accumulated by the 
ages that are past and the germs of knowledge which the ages yet to 
come ought to acquire." ® 

Approaching the real question of the Normal School, Lakanal says: 
"A great difficulty presented itself at the very moment of the execution 
of the plans: where to find a sufficient number of men to teach, in so 
large a number of schools, doctrines so new with a method itself so 
new. Does there exist in France, in Europe, on the entire earth, two 
or three hundred men in a position to teach the useful arts and the 
necessary knowledges with the methods which shall render the spirits 
more penetrating and the virtues more clear? This little number does 
not exist. It is necessary to form them. And by that circle, faulty arid 
fatal in which human destinies alwavs seem to revolve it seems that, in 
order to form them, it would be necessary already to have them. 

"It is here that one must admire the genius of the National Con- 
vention. France had not yet the schools where the children of six years 
could learn to read and write. And you have decreed the establishrnent 
of normal schools, of schools of the highest grade of public instruction. 

"What have you wished, in a word, in decreeing the first normal 
schools? You have wished to provide in advance for the vast plan of 
public instruction which is in your designs and in your resolutions, a 
very large number of instructors capable of being the executors of a 
plan which has for its end the regeneration of the human understanding 
in a republic of 25,000,000 men whom the democracy makes all equal. 

"In these schools, it is not, therefore, the sciences which are to be 
taught, but rather the art of teaching them; in setting out from these 
schools the pupils ought to be not only instructed men but men capable 
of instructing others. For the first time on earth, nature, truth, reason 
and philosophy are to have a seminary. For the first time men the 
most eminent in the whole range of science, and of the most talents, 
men who, up to the present time, have been teachers of nothing less 
than nations and ages, men of genius, are going to be the first masters 
of a school for the people, for you will admit into these chairs none but 
men who are called because of unquestioned eminence throughout Eur- 
ope. Here it shall not be the number who shall serve but the superi- 
ority: It is better that they be few, but that they be the elect of science 
and of reason." ^ 

The matter thus presented on the 24th of October, 1794. was called 
up again on the 30th and, after some little discussion to be noted later, 
adopted in the following form:^ 

"The National Convention, wishing to hasten the time when she 
shall be able to provide, in a uniform manner, thruout the entire Re- 
public, instruction necessary for all French citizens, decrees. 

"Art. I — There shall be established, at Paris, a Normal School 
whither shall be called from all parts of the Republic, citizens already 



''Hippeau: Ibid., p. 4i3- 

«Ibid., p. 415- 

»Hippeau: Ibid., p. 411+- 

iGreard: La Legislation de L'Instruction Publique en France, 31-4-. 



Ecole Normalc Supcrieiirc 13 

instructed in the useful sciences, to learn, under professors the most 
eminent of their kind, the art of teaching. 

"Art. 2. — The governments of the various districts shall send to the 
Normal School a number of students proportioned to the population, 
the basis of apportionment being one student for each 20.000 people. 

"Art. 3. — The officers shall be allowed to choose as students only 
those citizens who can unite to good morals an approved patriotism and 
an aptness both to receive and impart instruction. 

"Art. 4. — The students of the Normal School shall not be under 
twenty-one years of age. 

"Art. 5.— They shall present themselves at Paris before the close of 
the month frimaire. (Nov. 22nd-Dec. 21st.) They shall receive for their 
journey and for the continuance of their normal course the donation 
accorded to the students of the central school of public works. 

"Art. 6. — The committee of public instruction shall designate the 
citizens whom it shall consider the most suitable for performing the 
functions of instructors in the Normal School, and shall submit the list 
of such for the approbation of the Convention. The committee, work- 
ing in concert with the committee of finance, shall fix the salaries. 

"Art. 7.— The instructors shall give lessons to the students on the 
art of teaching morals, and of forming the character of the young re- 
publicans as to the practice of public and private virtues. 

"Art. 8.— They shall teach them to apply to the teaching of Reading, 
Writing, the first elements df Arithmetic, practical Geometry, History 
and French Grammar, the methods outlined in the elementary books, 
and adopted by the National Convention and published by its orders. 

"Art. 9. — The duration of the normal 'course shall be at least four 
months. 

"Art. 10. — Two representatives of the people, designated by the 
National Convention, shall frequently visit the Normal School and keep 
the committee of public instruction thoroly posted on all matters of in- 
terest to that important establishment. 

"Art. II. — The students formed at that republican school shall re- 
turn, at the close of the course, into their respective districts; they shall 
open in the chief city of the canton designated by the administration of 
the district a Normal School whose object shall be to transmit to the 
citizens, both men and women, who shall be willing to devote themselves 
to public instruction, the methods of teaching which they shall have 
acquired in the Norma! School at Paris. 

"Art. 12. — These new courses shall be of at least four months 
duration. 

"Art. 13.— The normal schools of the departments shall be under 
the supervision of properJy constituted authorities. 

"Art. 14. — The committee of public instruction shall be charged with 
the work of drawing up the plans of these national schools, and of de- 
termining the mode of teaching which ought to be followed there. 

"Art. 15. — Each decade the committee of public instruction shall ren- 
der an account to the convention of the condition of the Normal School 
at Paris and of the secondary normal schools which shall be established 
in execution of the present decree thruout the entire extent of the 
Republic." 

The recommendation did not call forth the discussion that it would 
seem to merit. What there was touched upon only minor points. 2 

2ln chapters II, III and IV, where quotations are not definitely re- 
ferred the reference is to "Le Moniteur." a daily newspaper pub- 
lished in Paris from 1789-1848. Tomes 22, 23 and 24, Reim- 
pression of i860. 



14 6.colc Normale Superieure 

Lefiot thought it folly "to begin the edifice at the top." Before form- 
ing teachers he said they better know exactly what was to be taught, 
and suggested postponement until the elementary books, then under 
preparation, should be completed. Thibault called for information as to 
the writers of these books saying, "I value talent but much more mor- 
ality. It is not rare to see scoundrels write on morals. Robespierre 
spoke only on virtue, Couthon on justice." He was apparently satisfied 
when told that among the writers were Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and 
LaGrange v/ho were writing, respectively, on morals and geometry. 
Sargent observed that the term, four months, fixed by q,rticle nine, was 
too short, saying, "Unless the men selected as professors are charlatans 
or fools they cannot, in four months, attain the end in view." He asked 
that the time be made one year. Collat D'Herbois replied, "If the term 
is too short the instruction will be imperfect; if you prolong it you will 
not satisfy the impatience of those who are demanding schools." 
Gregiore suggested the wisdom of not deciding upon any definite time, 
but leaving that to developments. The words "at least" were added to 
the original draft. 

The recommendation carried the signature of the entire committee 
of public instruction but yet the members were not in entire accord. 
Thibaudeau, for example, maintaining in open discussion as against the 
recommendation he had signed, that the sole purpose of the school was 
to teach the best methods of teaching reading, writing, arithmetic and 
morals in the primary schools. 

Such was the recommendation of the committee of public instruc- 
tion offered by its president, and such the character of the discussion 
upon it. When we take into consideration the circumstances of the time 
and then glance again thru the articles we cannot be surprised either 
that it was not discussed more fully or that it has since received much 
adverse criticism. It was clearly in keeping with the dominant spirit. 
The estimate of M. Barante is not far from fair: 

"Such was the lofty and chimerical intoxication of the revolutionary 
philosophy. She thought she had arrived at an hour when she was going 
to accomplish a new creation of human nature, to change the conditions 
of the soul, the laws of reason and intelligence. Wishing to reform 
society and to give to it conditions other than had prevailed, it did right 
to begin by changing man himself." ^ 

The decree was passed on the 30th of October. Thirteen days later, 
November 12th, in accordance with Article 10, the two representatives 
were chosen — Lakanal and Sieyes. The latter, however, declining to act, 
the place was later filled by Deleyre. This committee was faithful in the 
performance of its duties watching over the school, as Liard says, "with 
the affection of a father." 

Following closely the spirit of Article 6 and the interpretation of 
the same by Lakanal, eminent men were selected to act as professors. 
From that standpoint the list cannot well receive adverse criticism. 
Hardly a man but had already received great distinction, some of them 
even a hundred years later standing out as great mountain peaks in 
their respective lines. I greatly doubt if ever before or since any in- 
stitution could present for its time a more illustrious faculty. The wis- 
dom of the selections may, however, from another standpoint be ques- 
tioned. Teachers were being secured for a normal school; the instruc- 
tion was to be given to teachers, yea, teachers of teachers, and yet as 



^Barante : Histoire de la Convention Nationale, VI : 78. 



£cole Normale Supcrieure 15 

Liard says, "they entrusted this pedagogical instruction not to teachers 
skilled in the art, but to wise men of genius, to scholars of talent." * 

The following is a list of the chairs and their incumbents: 

Mathematics — LaGrange and LaPlace. 

Physics — Hauy. 

Natural History — Daubenton. 

Chemistry — ^Berthollet. 

Agriculture — Thouin. 

Geography— Buache and Mentelle. 

History — Volney 

Ethics — Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. 

Descriptive Geometry — Monge. 

Grammar — Sicard. 

Analysis of the Understanding— Garat. 

Literature — LaHarpe. 

Political Economy — Vander Monde. 



*Liard: L'Enseignement Superieur en France, 1:269. 



i6 £cole Normale Superieure 

CHAPTER III. 

ORGANIZATION AND OPENING OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL. 

In spite of the fact that the country was not especially prepared for 
any such legislation as this, and that the decree was presented and passed 
within six days and practically without discussion ; and tho less than two 
months was allowed from the time of its first introduction to the time 
set for the assembling of the students in Paris ; in spite of all this, by the 
appointed time the students were there, nearly 1400 strong. This ready 
and enthusiastic response seems little less than marvelous. Nor could it 
well have happened in any country save France. And even there it needs 
explanation. I can think of no better explanation than that suggested by 
Barante in ascribing it to the feeling of relief and of new courage brought 
in by the coming to an end of the terrible "Reign of Terror." His words 
are worth quoting: "When the names of the professors were given out, 
when after two years of barbarism, after the silence and suffocation of 
thought imposed by the Terror, they saw reappear the first glimmer which 
announced the liberty and leisure rendered to the spirit, the nourishment 
tendered to its activity, the public took a lively interest." ^ The people 
were rejoiced to welcome a sign of better times. Exaggerated notions 
were formed of what the new school was to be and do, and there followed 
an immediate scramble for appointment. 

Nor had the committee been idle. They had given the matter con- 
siderable thought and had mapped out not only a program but as well a 
general method of procedure which they thought would best enable the 
school to perform the function for which it had been established. Let us 
note in the first place just what that function was, for there seem to 
have been differences of opinion at that time among the critics of the 
school, tho with the decree before us today we can see no very good 
reason for these differences. The decree tells us very plainly that the 
function was not academic but professional, that the one work was to 
prepare educated young men for the pedagogical management of secondary 
Normal Schools. That was all. The young men were to learn how to 
teach, and, having learned, they were to return home and transmit this 
knowledge to others who were to be the real teachers of the children. 
This being the function of the school, the program was very simple. The 
students were all to do the same work. There was to be no gradation, 
no cutting up into sections, even ; simply one great class addressed by the 
different professors in turn. As planned, the work was not to be daily 
in the various subjects. Something like a careful arrangement was made. 
It will be remembered that already, in its hatred of everything not new, 
the Convention had ceased to reckon time from the beginning of the 
Christian era, dating now from the beginning of the new Republic. They 
had gone farther and changed the names of the months and even made a 
different division of the month than into weeks of seven days each. They 
had no need for the Sabbath, so could easily apply their decimal sj'Stem. 
The month was divided into three parts of ten days each, called "decades," 
and the Normal School program was accommodated to that division. 

The work was to begin each day at eleven o'clock and close at a 
quarter past three. No more than three subjects were to be handled in 



^Barante: Histoire de la Convention Nationale, VI : 80. 



£cole Normale Superieure 17 

any one day, and each subject was to be presented but twice during a 
decade, as follows : 

On the first and sixth days, Mathematics, Physics and Geometry. 

On the second and seventh days, Natural History, Chemistry, and 
Agriculture. 

On the third and eighth days, Geography, History and Ethics. 

On the fourth and ninth days, Grammar, Analysis of the Understand- 
ing, and Literature. 

Each fifth day was to be given up to a public conference to which 
were to be invited learned men distinguished in letters and in arts. These 
conferences were planned for a general consideration of the educational 
situation in France, with special reference to the elementary books to be 
used in the schools. The last day of each decade was planned to be a 
sort of a holiday, but yet one that should serve a good educational end. 
The students were expected on these days to visit libraries, museums and 
other educational institutions. 

On the 15th of January, 1795, Lakanal and Deleyre, speaking for the 
committee, outlined before the convention the work of the new school. 
In other schools, they claimed, the work was wholly by lecture, only the 
teachers being permitted to speak ; there being no room for discussion 
much of the lecture was but poorly understood and therefore soon for- 
gotten. In the Normal different results should be sought, making different 
methods necessary. That which is imparted, both the information and the 
methods used, should be so clearly understood, they held, that it could be 
repeated in all the schools of France. To bring this about the committee 
suggested two agencies which, tho in common use today, were un- 
doubtedly somewhat new a hundred years ago, namely, free discussion 
between professor and students, and the use of text-books. The way in 
which they proposed to provide these agencies is seen in the following 
quotation which I take from Lc Moniteur of January 2nd, 1795, being a 
portion of the report made by Lakanal and Deleyre : 

"Stenographers, that is to say, men who write as rapidly as men speak, 
shall be placed within the walls of the Normal School, and everything 
which shall be said there shall be written down and reviewed in order 
to be printed and published in a journal. In the first session^ the pro- 
fessors alone shall speak ; in the second session of the same course, the 
same subjects shall be treated again and the students shall also be allowed 
to speak. Stenographic reports of what the professors said in the former 
session shall be placed in their hands one or two days in advance. In the 
first place the students shall question the professors, then the professors 
the students, and thus conferences shall be established between students 
and professors, between students and students, and between professors 
and professors. By the cooperation and harmony of these means, before 
passing from one svibject to another, there will always bear upon that 
which has already been seen the second view necessary to give to ideas 
something of clearness, firmness and fullness. The instruction will be 
not the work of a single spirit but of from 1200 to 1500 spirits." ^ 

It will be seen from this quotation that tho each subject was to be 
treated twice during each decade, in only one of the two sittings was 
advance work to be given, the second sitting being given up to discussion 
of the lecture given in the first. 

These stenographic reports, I might add, were to be furnished not 
only to the students but, as well, to the members of the Convention, the 
professors, district officials, and to the agents of the Republic in foreign 
covmtries. 



2That is, of each decade. 

3Reimpression de I'Ancien Moniteur de la Revolution Francaise, 
XXIII : 249. 



i8 Scale Normale Superieure 

But these reports did not include all the text-book matter used. On 
the 9th of February the Convention voted 30,000 livres* for the purchase 
and distribution among the students of other necessary books. 

The school opened with some ceremony and with high expectations 
on the 20th of January, 1795. The opening meeting was held in the grand 
amphitheatre of the Museum of Natural History. Lakanal read the decree 
creating the school, and then LaPlace, Hauy and Monge in turn gave 
short lectures. 

But no correct picture of the school can be formed without some 
description of the student body. What sort of young men were attracted 
by the opportunities presented? What sort offered themselves for the 
leadership of the prospective normal schools of France? In answering 
such questions it must be admitted that the statements are somewhat con- 
flicting. Still it is not difficult, I think, to reach a conclusion reasonably 
correct. 

An interesting statement is made by Barante : "From all the provinces 
came men who cultivated letters, men who were engaged in the sciences. 
No one dreamed of becoming a village schoolmaster, but all came simply 
to hear the eminent masters called to be professors, planning then to take 
up their old course of study, their literary or scientific occupations." ^ 

Another statement of some interest, tho not a very complimentary 
one, is that of Andre,^ who says that many of the students were enlight- 
ened on some matters though very ignorant on others. But he adds, "the 
great majority knew nothing." As to attendance and general interest, he 
says that very many, either from inability or general laziness, did not 
attend the meetings. They accepted the pay provided and lived in idleness. 
Still, he admits that under the circumstances abuses were inevitable. 

Le Moniteur refers to two students by-^'ame, Bougainville and Lelille. 
The former, a man of more than sixty years of age, had been Vice Admiral 
of the French Navy. At one time he had made a tour of the world and 
had discovered an island in the South Sea. Lelille, also, was a man of 
years and so generally well known that his appearance among the students 
called forth applause and other evidences of admiration. 

"The students of the fecole Normale," says the editor of a curreni 
French periodical, "were made up of three classes, very distinct and about 
equal in number ; the conformity of their political sentiments gave them 
their only cohesion."'^ These three classes were: (i) Primary teachers; 
(2) Priests and College Professors; and (3) Government Officials. 

These and similar references enable us to get at least a fairly correct 
idea of the student body. Undoubtedly these individual mentions are ex- 
ceptions. The very fact that they are thus singled out would indicate as 
much. Andre's statement is probably likewise extreme but yet in all 
probability tells the truth as to a certain number of the students. So, too, 
the impression given b)'^ Barante that the students were largely literary 
and scientific men who came more for a high class individual entertain- 
ment. But yet when we remember that the decree fixed the lower age 
limit at twenty-one and named no upper limit, also that the intellectual 
requirement was, "already instructed in the useful sciences," and when we 
add to these the other fact that for six years practically no schools or 
colleges had been in operation, we are compelled to conclude that the 
studentry was made up very largely of relatively mature men, men of 
learning and experience. 



<About $6000.00. 

"Barante : Histoire de la Convention Nationale, VI : 80. 

«Andre : Nos Maitres Aujourd'hui, 1:267. 

''Revue Universitaire : Tome premier, 1895, p. 354. Article "L'Ecole 
Normale de I'An. III." The material for this article, the writer 
says, was taken from "Le Centenaire de L'ficole Normale." 



&cole Normale Supcriciirc 19 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE WORK OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL. 

Thus equipped, the great school began its work. How did it proceed? 
What did it do? Did it give to its students that professional training 
which its founders had dimly in mind? Did it metamorphose those lit- 
erary and scientific men, those primarj^ teachers and college professors, 
those priests and public officials, into efficient normal school principals 
knowing exactly how to direct the teaching to prospective teachers of 
children the correct methods of teaching reading, writing, and arith- 
metic? 

To ask the question is to answer it. With the studentry and faculty 
as we have seen them and with the environment as we know it to have 
been, who could look for any outcome save that of failure? But yet the 
steps leading to that failure are neither uninteresting nor unimportant. 

The school opened, as has been said, on the 20th of January. Tho 
enthusiasm ran high and expectations were extravagant, nay, possibly be- 
cause of these facts, there seemed to be, for some time, no disposition to 
settle down to regular and thoughtful work. The lectures of the eminent 
professors, both in matter and manner, were far removed from what we 
today would plan for a similar work. But no farther removed than was 
the reception accorded the same by the motley crowd on the benches. The 
atmosphere both on the platform and on the floor was as different from 
that which should have prevailed as one can well imagine. It was sur- 
charged with sentiment, emotion and passion ; it was vitiated with personal 
vanity, class hatred and political intrigue. Everything was being run at 
high tension. All were sitting over a powder magazine that needed but 
the spark for the explosion. This was quite largely true during the entire 
life of the school but especially true during the first weeks. The majority 
of the students were mature men, yet they conducted themselves like boys, 
exercising no control over their feelings or impulses. 

In the early days of the school occurred an incident wholly charac- 
teristic of the times as well as of the school. The students had organized 
themselves into a sort of delilierative assembly. Among the first matters 
that came before them in this capacity was a proposition to present to 
the Convention an address of thanks for the establishment of the school 
and of congratulation on its other noble works. The body was unanimous 
and enthusiastic in its support of the proposition but could not agree as 
to the wording of the address. Tho different wordings were suggested 
and much feeling manifested, owing to the widely different characteristics 
of the body they could not agree and no address was presented. 

To illustrate further, let me quote again from the article in the Revue 
Univcrsitairc: 

"Seminary directors of long standing, church men of experience, col- 
lege professors of note, old judges, and administrators of the departments 
or districts, on becoming students, once more became children. 'Who 
would think it?' said a journal. La Fevillc de la Republique, friendly to 
the Normal School, on the i6th of February, 'they have been seen even 
in very large numbers, vigorously to cheer when there was brought into 
the hall simply a tub of ice destined for experiments in chemistry.' Their 
admiration for their masters became at once injudicious and embarrassing. 
'Almost worshiping their professors,' the same journal goes on to say, 
'they deafened them by long continued applause every time they mounted 
the platform to give a lesson, and, during its progress, they welcomed by 



20 £cole Norniale Superieiire 

the clapping of hands, every expression, every turn of phrase which seemed 
to them particularly happy or strong.' " ^ 

The days set aside for conference, the fifth of each decade, vv^ere like- 
wise frequently stormy and chaotic. In the early days many spoke from 
mere vanity, simply to draw attention to themselves or to confuse the pro- 
fessors. Lakanal finally appealed to them personally and publicly to better 
their conduct, and in these efforts he was aided by some of the more 
thoughtful and considerate of the students, so that the same journal could 
say, of a time somewhat later, "the salutary checks which they received 
from their colleagues have taught them to keep silent when they have 
nothing to say." ^ 

The same improvement took place in the lecture sessions, as noted in 
the following : 

"Little by little, fortunately, that madness disappeared. * * * * 
The students returned from that childish infatuation; those who occupy 
the benches of the amphitheatre are no longer great noisy boys ; they are 
men worthy of the object which calls them together and worthy of the 
important mission which they are soon to fill in their respective de- 
partments." 2 

It is pleasing to note this change and it would be even more pleasing 
if one could say that the improved conditions continued through the re- 
mainder of the course. But the lapses were too many to justif}^ such a 
statement. Still, it is true that a spirit of earnestness characterized much 
of the work. 

The instruction given, too, the lectures delivered, were many of them 
strangely inappropriate. 

Seven days after the opening, Le Moniteur gave some interesting 
notes on what was being done : 

"Citizen LaPlace, in his lecture on Mathematics, took occasion to 
speak of a fantastic notion of Leibnitz who, in a binary arithmetic of 
which he was the author, thought he had found an explanation of creation. 
Unity was God the Creator and zero was the world which God had made 
out of nothing. That weakness of spirit in a great man recalled Newton's 
commentary on the Apocalypse, 

"The professor did not fail to attribute these errors of Leibnitz and 
Newton to ideas which they had received in their infancy. He then con- 
gratulated the students of the Normal School on their good fortune in 
being called to educate teachers and in being able to give them an edu- 
cation freed from all such prejudices." * "That reflection," Le Moniteur 
adds, "was vigorously applauded." ^ 

LaPlace was followed by Hauy. "What he said on theories in general 
and the skillful manner in which he distinguished between systems excited 
lively applause. It would be difficult to speak of Physics with greater 
clearness or with more simplicity and elegance than did this learned and 
modest professor. 

"During the second session of the school. Citizens Boache and Men- 
telle spoke on Geography, Volney on History, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre 
on Morals, and Daubenton on Natural History. The first three were 
listened to with all the attention that interest in their subjects and the 
celebrity of their talents could inspire. But it was especially when tht 
good Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, when the respected Daubenton, rose to 
speak, it was then that unanimous and long continued applause filled the 
vast amphitheatre. The ear could not tire in listening to them nor the 



^Revue Universitaire : Ibid., p. 365. 
2Revue Universitaire : Ibid., p. 365. 
^Revue Universitaire : Ibid., p. 368. 
*''Le Moniteur: Ibid., XXIII: 306. 



£coIe Normalc Supcricitre 21 

eye in looking upon them. Something more than attention held the spirits ; 
it was admiration, even love, in seeing and hearing these venerable inter- 
preters of morals and nature. The unanimous applause which the assembly 
rendered to these two illustrious men, to the friends of Jean Jacques and 
Bufifon, proved well that the students of the Normal School knew how xu 
honor old age, talents and virtue. And that homage reflected nearly as 
much honor on the students as it gave to the professors who were its 
objects." ^ 

At one session Sicard, Professor of Grammar, entertained the 
school with an account of the work he was doing with some deaf mutes, 
five of whom he had with him for the purpose of illustration. And so 
skillfully did he work upon the feelings of his hearers in speaking of 
these unfortunates that he was rewarded by seeing the most of them in 
tears. Nor was this the only session in which tears were shed, nor he 
the only one who resorted to appeals that drew them forth. 

The professors gave but little, if any, time in trying to teach the 
art of teaching. They doubtless recognized the fact that it is much 
easier to prescribe such work than to do it. At any rate, as' Buisson 
points out, they yielded to "a very natural temptation to exploit their 
own discoveries, or to give general scientific instruction." ^ In a word, 
the work was being in no sense professional; so far as it was anything 
it was purely academic. Thus LaJrlace and LaGrange, after having be- 
gun their work in Mathematics with a lesson on enumeration, very soon 
passed to higher Algebra. LePlace's last lesson treated of a calculation 
of probabilities. Monge explained the theory of his new descriptive 
Geometry. M. Liard, after speaking of an interesting discussion that 
took place in one of the conferences, between Monge and the student 
Fourrier, on the relation of points, lines, planes, the sphere and the 
circumference, asks a pertinent question: "How many of that audience 
of more than a thousand students did the student Fourrier represent?"® 
Berthollet gave an account of the most recent discoveries of Chemistry. 
LaHarpe, under the name of literature, denounced the Jacobins. He 
analyzed some of Cicero's orations but simply for the purpose of finding 
political allusions. 

Such a departure from the outlined plan could not fail to be un- 
satisfactory. It is not difficult for us today to see many good reasons 
for the departure. It is not even necessary to enumerate them, but at 
that time it was different. Fault soon began to be found and complaints 
to be made. These criticisms took various forms, some more or less 
amusing, as for example, a pamphlet satirizing the school under the 
caption, "Tower of Babel." 

But in spite of fault-finding and general criticism it is probable that 
the work would have continued much longer and at least an attempt 
made to organize the secondary normal schools had there not been a 
change in the spirit of the Convention itself. New leaders arose, new 
or changed interests were being considered and it is not strange that 
educational enthusiasm did not continue unabated. Men, measures, in- 
stitutions, were all being questioned and made to justify their existence. 
It was at this time that the comprehensive but impracticable schemes 
of Lakanal, and Condorcet were overthrown and the inferior but more 
practicable one of Dounou substituted. The Normal School plan also 
came up for treatment. The district Normal idea was declared to be 
a chimera and the immediate supression of the central Normal School 
suggested. 

Finally, in open Convention, April i8th, the matter was discussed 



"Le Moniteur: Ibid., XXIII: 306. 
■'Buisson: Dictionnaire-Ibid., 766. 
^Liard: L'Enseignement Superieur en France, 1:272. 



22 P.cole Normale Supcrieure 

and the committee of public instruction directed to make an investiga- 
tion and present a report. The investigation was made and on April 
28th the report was presented by Dounou. 

The salient parts of the report I give in his own words, quoting 
from Buisson.'* It will be noted that while he admits the failure of the 
whole scheme and advises the closing of the school he throws the re- 
sponsibility for the failure elsewhere than upon the eminent faculty. 

"One has to agree with those who have demanded the suppression 
of the school that it has not taken exactly the direction which you 
thought to prescribe, and that, in general, the courses of instruction up 
to the present time have looked more to a direct teaching of the sci- 
ences than to an exposition of the methods one ought to follow in 
teaching them — that they have been directed toward the heights of 
science rather than toward the art of teaching the elements. * * * * 
Perhaps in instituting the Normal School we were not careful enough to 
determine the object with precision. It ought especially to have been 
known if, in calling from all parts of France 1400 citizens, the plan was 
to prepare them for primary instruction, or for central professorships 
for the heads of the secondary Normal Schools. According as one 
proposed for himself one of these diverse ends there would be a very 
distinct goal to reach both in the choice of pupils and in the kind of 
teaching. It is in settling upon one of these three hypotheses that one 
ought to be able to discuss with some success an important question — 
that of knowing up to what point the art of teaching a science is in 
reality separable from the immediate teaching of that science itself. 

"The reputation of the professors and the co-operation of very great 
ability among the students have caused the Normal School to be re- 
ceived with great enthusiasm. And that enthusiasm has since become, 
as is generally the case, the measure of the disfavor of which it is the 
object. * * * * But yet it is true that in establishing the school you 
were much more impressed with the plan, somewhat confused, of the trans- 
mission of the art of teaching than clear as to the mode of that trans- 
mission. 

"In view of these considerations your committee thinks it necessary, 
at the outset, to renounce the thought of establishing the secondary 
Normal Schools in the departments. 

"If we do not propose to suppress immediately the Normal School 
at Paris it is because we think that you ought to accord the delay neces- 
sar3' for completing the work begun." 

"The Normal School has been in operation three months. Your 
committee recommends that you fix on May 21st as the day of closing. 
It is hoped that the professors, either by compressing their lectures or 
by giving them more frequently, will, by that time, be able to complete 
the course mapped out."^ 

The report was listened to with respectful attention and the follow- 
ing decree immediately passed without opposition: 

"Art. I. — The course of the Normal School shall be brought to a 
close on the 21st of May. 

"Art. 2. — Those students of the Normal School who shall wish to 
return to their homes before the close of the work shall be permitted 
to do so. 

"Art. 3. — The professors of the Normal School shall be required 
in addition to draw up or map out the elementary books for the primary 
schools. 



»Dounou's report is also found in Liard, Ibid., I:273-|-, and in Le- 

Mointeur, XXIV: 315. 
iBuisson: Dictionnaire, p. 767. 



Scole Normale Supcrieiire 23 

"Art. 4. — The professors who shall not have completed their work 
by May ist shall furnish the material for the remainder for the Journal 
of the Normal School, which remainder shall be furnished gratuitously 
to all the students." ^ 

The last session of the school was held on the i6th day of May, five 
days before the limit set in the decree. Few if any of the courses, how- 
ever, were fully completed at that time. I add a list of the number of 
lessons given by each of the professors. It will easily be seen that, as 
Buisson puts it, they "did not all apply the same zeal to their teaching." 

LaPIace and LaGrange, Mathematics, each 14; Monge, Descriptive 
Geometry, 7; Hauy, Physics, 14; Buache and Mentelle, Geography, each 
16; Volney, History, 5; Daubenton, Natural History, 18; Bernardin de 
Saint-Pierre, Morals, i; Sicard, Grammar or Art of Speech, 25; Garat, 
Analysis of the Understanding, 2; LaHarpe, Literature, 6; Berthollet, 
Chemistry, 13; Vandermonde, Political Economy, 8; Thouin, Agricult- 
ure, 0.3 

As a matter of fact, the conditions that prevailed during the last 
weeks of the course were somewhat similar to those of the first weeks. 
Irregularity in attendance on part of both students and teachers, lack of 
interest due to criticism and threatened closure, and general dissatis- 
faction bred an atmosphere that absolutely prevented anything like good 
work. The article in the Revue Universitaire, already cited, is interest- 
ing on this point. I give a brief quotation: 

"Four courses only, those of Daubenton, of Hauy, of Buache and 
of Mentelle, were almost exactly conformed to their programs. Only 
those professors gave in four months anywhere near what they had 
outlined. The others were so completely possessed of the idea of a 
school of higher culture, that they had not carefully estimated their 
time, on the supposition that, by the very necessity of the case, the 
school would have to be continued as long as they had anything to 
say." * 

At the close all seemed to regret that the shortness of time ren- 
dered them unable to complete the work planned. They explained their 
shortcoming each according to his own temperament. As an example, 
I will speak briefly of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Tho he was so en- 
thusiastically received at the opening of the work, he did not again ap- 
pear till the school was nearing its close, and then but to explain his 
long silence and to counteract what he considered erroneous positions 
taken by some of his colleagues. The Convention had instructed him, 
he said, to write a manual of Republican morals, and as the entire time 
was much too short he could not make it still shorter by using a por- 
tion of it in lecturing. Barante, however, suggested another reason: 
"He had no skill to improvise, perhaps also he thought that to teach 
morals in the way of a science was faulty and impracticable." ^ The 
Revue Universitaire suggests still another reason: "The truth is that 
he did not wish to teach by the side of wise men whom he disliked and 
whose systems he had attacked." ^ 

The Journal to which reference has often been made, has been the 
subject of considerable speculation. Was it ever kept? Has it been 
preserved? The lectures and discussions were printed and distributed 
somewhat as the plan has been outlined. Printing enterprise was also 
in evidence in ofifering for sale to those not entitled to free copies, the 



^Buisson; Ibid., p. 767. 

^Buisson: Ibid., p. 767. 

*Revue Universitaire: Ibid., p. 368. 

''Barante: Histoire de la Convention Nationale, VI: 81. 

^Revue Universitaire: Ibid., p. 369. 



24 Ecole Normale Superieure 

sheets as they appeared from day to day. An advertisement to that 
effect appeared in Le Moniteur at the very opening of the school offer- 
ing to furnish the Journal in installments of at least one sheet a day at 
the rate of 50 livres'^ for 125 sheets. 

As to the orip-inal authorized edition I have not been able to learn 
anything very definite. Buisson says, "We have not had in our hands 
the original edition of the Journal of the Normal School." There was, 
however, an edition printed in 1800 under the title "Sittings and Debates 
of the Normal Schools collected by the stenographers and revised by 
the professors." This edition consists of thirteen volumes, ten for the 
sittings and three for the debates, with an atlas added. The lectures 
given in the Normal School, however, fill only six of the ten volumes, 
the other four containing later works by the same authors. Volume 
VIII contains an epitome of the Celestial Mechanics of LaPlace, by 
Biot, and the beginning of a course in Agriculture by Thouin; Volume 
VIII, some fragments of a Natural History by Daubenton and Lacepede 
and a continuation of a course in Agriculture by Thouin; Volume IX, 
a lesson on Chemistry by Berthollet, dated 1800. and the conclusion of 
the course on Agriculture by Thouin; Volume X, lessons on calculation 
of functions taught in the Polytechnique School by LaGrange in 1798. 
The second half of Volume III of the Debates is taken up with memor- 
anda of Hauy on Mineralogy.^'' 

So the Normal School was discontinued. It seems to have had 
sort of a mushroom existence — springing up in a night and under the 
fierce glare of the noonday withering away. But let us see — was its short 
existence of no value? Let the question be answered by eminent Frnch 
writers on educational matters. Compayre says: "It is true that it 
was almost immediately closed when opened, but the idea already enter- 
tained by Rolland was worked out and Napoleon had only to take it up 
in order to make a durable establishment." ^ 

Dounou in the report already mentioned called attention to some 
good results. Speaking of the general effect upon the students he says: 
"On the whole, one should say that they have appreciated a horizon 
more vast, experienced sensations more profound, conceived thoughts 
more able and more extended, and if, from all causes, it has not resulted 
exactly as planned, nevertheless it is indisputably true that a great salu- 
tary impulse has been given to instruction." ^ Speaking of the content 
of the instruction he adds, "Till now public instruction had been a half 
century in arrears of the progress of human spirit. Today the lessons 
of the professors of the Normal School bring into the instruction all 
the discoveries with which the sciences and arts are enriched; they 
raise much public instruction to the level of the actual state of knowl- 
edge." 1 

Barante, in speaking of the school, says: "The Normal School in 
no way accomplished the purpose, vague and illusory, which the father 
of the decree calling it into existence had marked out; but its brief 
existence is an epoch in the history of letters and of science in France. 
It did not busy itself with giving nor either of seeking for that universal 
mode of instruction, that elementary formula of all human knowledges 
which so charmed the imagination of the new philosophers, but it was 
a delight, an exhileration to cultivated spirits; it revived the taste for 
intellectual pleasures. That numerous body quickly drawn from all 
parts of France; that coming together of men filled with love of letters 



"About $10.00. 

^Buisson: Ibid., p. 767. 

^Compayre: Les Doctrines de I'Education, 11:313. 

^Buisson: Ibid., p. 767. 



Ecole Normale Superieure 25 

or of science; those oral lessons which had all the attraction of ex- 
temporaneous speech ;*•(=** those conferences between the teachers 
and the students, some of whom later made names for themselves in the 
literary world ; those exact sciences up to that time taught only in their 
elementary and practical parts, now lectured upon for the first time 
by the most eminent scholars of Europe; Monge, whose speech was so 
clear and so interesting, demonstrating descriptive Geometry of which 
he was making a new body of science; Garat, that elegant and luminous 
expounder of the philosophy of Condillac who was then ruling with 
unquestioned authority; LaHarpe, who had already attained so great 
success in his courses in the Lyceum; Volney, that ingenious scholar, 
but yet systematic in his researches in history; such was the spectacle 
which that passing, that transient, institution presented, an institution 
born from the hazard of the Revolution. During three months it had 
the unlooked for good fortune of diverting the public from the stormy 
debates of the Convention and from the daily anxieties of famine." ^ 

From many of a similar character I quote only one more, but one 
that calls attention to a very significant fact. "With some exceptions 
the wise men interested in the advancement of science formerly formed 
in France a class totally distinct from the teaching class. In calling 
the foremost geometers, the most distinguished natural philosophers, 
the most eminent naturalists of the world to professorships, the Con- 
vention cast about the teaching profession an unusual glory. — In the 
eyes of the public a title which had been borne by such men as La- 
Grange, LaPlace, Monge and Berthollet, became with good reason 
equal to titles the most lofty." •'' 



^Barante: Histoire de la Convention Nationale, VI: 80. 
^Biot: Histoire des Sciences pendant la Revolution, quoted by I.. 
Liard: Ibid., I: 275. 



26 Scale Normale Supcrieure 

CHAPTER V. 

REORGANIZATION UNDER NAPOLEON. 

If I were writing a history of education in France it would be 
necessary to trace very carefully the efforts made looking toward a 
realization of the plan outlined by Dounou in 1795, also to note addi- 
tions that were made from time to time and to see exactly what was 
being done thruout the various parts of the realm. But my purpose 
being quite diiiferent from that, I shall mention such matters only so 
far as necessary to make my own portion of the subject clear. 

In a former chapter I called attention to Dounou's plan of an 
educational system which became a law of the land on October 27th, 
1795- It is hardly necessary to say that even tho less comprehensive 
than those introduced earlier it was not at once put into operation. 
Time was required, much time when one takes into consideration po- 
litical, economic and social conditions. 

But these conditions were not taken into consideration by the 
people of the times who were clamoring for educational advantages. 
They complained that these advantages were not so good as before 
the Revolution and no doubt that was true. Rose, in his "Life of 
Napoleon," says of the educational work of the Revolution: "Those 
ardent reformers did little more than clear the ground for future action. 
They abolished the old monastic and clerical training, and declared for 
a generous system of national education in primary, secondary and ad- 
vanced schools. But amid strifes and bankruptcy their aims remained 
unfumiled." 1 

Even tho one may see that theoretically great advances had been 
made, as I have already pointed out, nevertheless he must admit that 
for several years no improvements can be seen; he must even admit 
that matters seemed to be going from bad to worse as suggested by 
another statement made by Rose: "In 1799 there were only 24 ele- 
mentary schools open in Paris, with a total enrollment of less than 
1000 pupils: and in rural districts matters were equally bad. The revo- 
lutionists had merely traced the outlines of a system. It remained for 
the First Consul to fill in the details or to leave it blank." 2 

These statements are no doubt true, and looking back upon the 
period we can see much better than the average man of the period who 
had children to educate how such a situation was both natural and in- 
evitable. But because they could not see it and were impatient for 
results complaints were heard on all sides. So great was the dissatis- 
faction that in 1801 the Councils General were summoned to consider 
the educational situation. 

In their discussions and considerations there seems to have been a 
clear recognition of the chief cause of this weakness, namely, that the 
teaching bodies, the educational interests, were no longer bound to- 
gether, they no longer formed a unity as very largely they had in each 
one of the old religious teaching congregations. ^ 

In 1802 and again in 1804 bills were introduced trying to remedy 
defects clearly seen. But it was not till 1806 that a decisive step was 
taken looking to the betterment of public instruction. On that day an 



^Rose: Life of Napoleon, 1:272. 

2Rose: Ibid., I: 272. 

^Compayre: History of Pedagogy, p. 509. 



Rcole Normale Supericure 27 

Imperial decree was passed which took the direction of educational 
matters out of the hands of the local committees making it a "function 
of the State on the same basis as the administration of justice or the 
organization of the army." * 

The entire decree runs as follows: 
"May loth, 1806. 

"Napoleon, by the grace of God and the declarations of the Re- 
public, Emperor of the French, to all present and to come — greeting. 

"The legislative body, hereby renders, May loth, 1806, the follow- 
ing decree, in accordance with a proposition made in the name of the 
Emperor, after having heard both the speakers of the Council of State 
and of the sections of the Tribunal the same day. 
"Decreed. 

"Art. I. — There shall be formed under the name of the Imperial 
University a body charged exclusively with instruction and with public 
education in the whole empire. 

"Art. 2. — The members of the teaching body shall enter into civil 
obligations, special and temporary. 

"Art. 3. — The organization of the teaching body shall be presented 
in the form of law, to the legislative body, at the session of 1810." ^ 

The regular organization was thus to be postponed four years, but 
without any explanation that I can find for the change of plan the matter 
was taken up in two years and the organization quite carefully worked 
out. 

This "Imperial University," it may be well to remark, was not to 
be an educational institution such as we connect with the term uni- 
versity, like Michigan University, or Chicago University, an institution 
made up of certain colleges as literary, law, medicine, &c.. having a 
definite and permanent home and administered by a president and fac- 
ulty. It was rather to be the sum total of the educational institutions 
of France, to include within itself all the educational activities of the 
entire empire — primary, secondary and higher. It was in fact to be, 
and today is, the educational system of France. Now, within it, or, 
better stated, a part of it, we find the old Normal School of Revolution 
days revived and reconstituted on lines very similar to those of 1795. 

Before taking up the portion of the decree dealing specifically with 
the Normal School I quote a few articles touching the University as a 
whole. This celebrated decree bears the date, March 17th, 1808. 

"Art. I. — Public instruction thruout the entire empire is confined 
exclusively to the University. 

"Art. 2. — No school, no establishment whatever of instruction may 
be formed outside of the Imperial University and without the authori- 
zation of its head. 

"/\rt. 3. — No one may open a school, no one may teach publicly 
without being a member of the Imperial University and graduated from 
one of its faculties." '^ 

Passing on now to the articles bearing on the Normal School, I 
quote from Barrau: 

"Art. no. — There shall be established at Paris a Normal Boarding 
School planned to receive as many as 300 young men who shall there 
be educated in the art of teaching letters and science. 

"Art. III. — The inspectors of the academy shall select, each year, 
from the lyceums, upon examination, a certain number of young men 
of at least 17 years of age from among those whose advancement and 



*Compayre: Ibid., p. 511. 

'•Greard: La Legislation de ITnstruction Primaire en France, 1:52. 

«Greard: Ibid., I: 53. 



28 Ecole Normale Superieure 

good conduct have been most satisfactory and who shall have shown 
the greatest aptitude for management and teaching. 

"Art. 112. — The students who shall present themselves for exam- 
ination must have the consent of their fathers or guardians to pursue 
the university course. They shall not be received into the Normal 
Boarding School except upon agreeing to remain at least ten years in 
the teaching profession. 

"Art. 113. — These students shall pursue their studies at the College 
of France, at the Polytechnic School or at the Museum of Natural His- 
tory according as they shall plan to teach letters or some of the sciences. 

"Art. 114. — The students, aside from their regular work, shall have 
in the Normal Boarding School, tutors chosen from among the older 
and more capable of their own number, to assist them either in review- 
ing the suDJects taught in the special schools mentioned above, in the 
special experimental work in physics and chemistry or in practical work 
in the art of teaching. 

"Art. 115. — The students shall not remain at the Normal Boarding 
School longer than two years. They shall there be maintained at the 
expense of the University and admitted into a common life in accord- 
ance with the regulation that the grand master of the University shall 
make. 

"Art. 116. — The Normal Boarding School shall be under the im- 
mediate supervision of one of the life counselors who shall reside at 
the school. There shall be under him a Director of Studies. 

"Art. 117. — The number of students to be received each year in 
lyceums and to be sent forward to the Normat Boarding School shall 
be determined by the grand master in accordance with the conditions 
and needs of the colleges and lyceums. 

"Art. 118. — The students during the two years course of their study 
at the Normal Boarding School or at its close must take their degrees 
at Paris either in the department of letters or of science. 

They shall then be appointed by the Grand Master to fill vacancies 
as they occur in the Academies." '^ 

On March 30th, 1810, the organization was completed thru legisla- 
tion upon the number and duties of the officials, the wardrobe of the 
students and the general disciplinary regulations of the school; and on 
May 29th a statute was passed arranging in detail the economic ad- 
ministration which was put into the hands of the Counselor. 

Thru a carefully worked out plan of budgets, detailed estimates, 
committee discussions, receipts, checks and counter checks, the Coun- 
selor and Steward on part of the Normal School and Grand Master and 
Treasurer on part of the University, together with a "commission ex- 
traordinaire" which was to visit the school annually in January, the 
Normal school expenses were provided for and in turn expenditures 
accounted for. 

The leading officials decided upon with the salaries (fixed a little 
later, however, Mav 29, 1810) were as follows: Counselor, 6000 francs; 
Director of Studies, 5000 francs; Chaplain, 2500 francs; Superintending 
Masters ("Ushers"), 1500 francs; Steward, 3000 francs; Tutors, salaries 
to be fixed by Grand Master and Counselor. 

'ihe Director of Studies, chaplain, tutors, superintending masters, 
and steward were also boarded from the fact that they were required 
to live at the school in close contact with the students. 

We are a little surprised to find the minute regulations that pre 
vailed as to clothing. But the matter received careful and detailed at 
tention. On entering the school each student was provided with a ward 



■'Barrau: Legislation de ITnstruction Publique, p. 371. 



6cole Normale Sulyerieurc 



29 



robe all new and carefully marked with his name. The articles furnished 
were supposed to be sufficient for the entire stay at school. If more 
was needed it had to be purchased at the expense of the student. 

The disciplinary regulations, rightly called "police." are equally 
different from our thought of today. In all these minute prescriptions 
and prohibitions we see at work a spirit vastly different from that mani- 
fested in the Normal School of the Revolution. We simply need to 
remember that France, at this period, was not a Republic but that the 
hand of a Napoleon was directing the affairs of state. Nothing was 
left to the initiative of the individual student either as to dress, conduct, 
use of time or even to the wearing of the clothing provided. 

Taine has not overdrawn the matter in saying, "Every hour of the 
day has its prescribed task: all exercises including religious observ- 
ances, are prescribed, each in time and place, with a detail and minute- 
ness as if purposely to close all possible issues to personal initiative 
and everywhere substitute mechanical uniformity for individual diversi- 
ties." ^ 

I add a few of these "police" regulations: Each student roomed 
alone and "could not receive a visitor." (Either a fellow student or par- 
ent), "without the consent of the usher." "When the students are in 
their rooms the keys must be in the doors (on the outside) "so that 

the Usher may enter as often as he thinks best." "There shall be no 

fires in the private rooms," only in the general halls. "Meals begin and 

close with prayer during which the students stand." "The Ushers eat 

at the same table and at the same time as the students." "Individual 

leaves of absence are not granted. General walks may be taken in the 

company of the Ushers." "Students are not allowed to leave the 

building unless dressed in uniform." "All sports and dangerous ex- 
ercise, all games of cards and of chance are forbidden." All these and 
many others may be summed up and explained in another: "The prin- 
cipal duties of the students are respect for religion, loyalty to the 
sovereign and the government, sustained application, unvarying regu- 
larity, docility and submission to superiors. Whoever fails in these re- 
quirements is punished according to the gravity of the fault." * 

Somewhat detailed methods of punishment were prescribed, but as 
an inducement to good conduct this section of the statute closed with a 
provision for rewarding good conduct: "At the close of the Normal 
course the Director shall report to the Grand Master the ten students 
most worthy and commendable for their success and good conduct. 
These students are presented to the Grand Master; their names also 
are made public in the Academies which sent them. They shall be al- 
lowed to remain at the school a third year, in order to devote them- 
selves wholly to the particular work in which they are interested. They 
shall receive from that time the title and salary of a fellow or super- 
numerary professor; they shall perform in the school the functions of 
repeaters; that position shall be equivalent, for their advancement, to 
a professorship in the lower schools." ^ 

The daily program was carefully mapped out and religiously followed. 
Every moment of the working day, from five o'clock in the morning until 
ten at night, was passed under the watchful eye of the ever present Usher, 
and every moment accounted for. 

And why, one might ask, all these rules and regulations? Why these 
prescriptions and restrictions that really prevent anything like a true edu- 
cational process the growth and development of the free spirit within? 

^Taine : Modern Regime, II: 158. 
^Rendu: Code Universitaire, p. 782. 
1 Rendu: Ibid., p. 784. 



30 &cole Normale Superieure 

And that question might be prefaced by another, Why a Normal School 
at all? 

The answers are easily given. It was not because educational experts, 
from a profound knowledge of the human mind and the laws of its de- 
velopment, had thus advised. Far from it. Educational experts were not 
consulted. It was the work of a Napoleon, and not merely a Napoleon 
but of Napoleon. He did not want educated men, only trained men. 
There was no room in Napoleon's France for freely developed or freely 
developing spirits. He wanted men trained to obey, who themselves would 
know how to train others to obey, and so he planned his Normal School. 
And so he said, "Make professors for me, and not litterateurs, wits or 
seekers or inventors in any branch of knowledge." ^ Again he said of 
the University as a whole : "In the establishment of an educational corps 
my principal aim is to secure the means for directing political and moral 
opinions." ^ In a word, as Taine says, "It is for himself that he works, 
for himself alone." 

Or, as Larousse, speaking of this Normal School, as compared with 
4;he one of the Convention, puts it : "Napoleon, in his new plans, wished, 
however, a similar institution, but for himself alone, for the perpetuity of 
his system of government, for the perpetuity of his dynasty — a sort of 
college of cardinals under his dependence and devoted to him, charged 
with the preparation for him of priests, apostles of the Napoleonic religion 
which he wished to found. He needed a Normal School, his Normal 
School. The hopes, the aspirations of the Convention could not be his : 
the general interest of civilization had inspired those, personal and dynastic 
interest had inspired these." * 

How else can we understands such words as these spoken by Napoleon 
himself? "I want a corporation, not of Jesuits whose sovereign is in 
Rome, but of Jesuits who have no ambition but to be useful and no 
interest but the interest of the state." " 

How else can we understand such as these? "All the schools belong- 
ing to the University shall take for the basis of their teaching loyalty to 
the Emperor, to the imperial monarchy to which the happiness of the 
people is confided, and to the Napoleonic dynasty which preserves the 
unity of France and of all liberal ideas proclaimed by the Constitution." ^ 

How else understand this article of the new church catechism adopted 
for the empire and to be used in all the schools? "We especially owe to 
Napoleon First, our Emperor, love, respect, obedience, fidelity, military 
service, and the dues prescribed for the preservation and defence of the 
Empire and the throne. For it is he whom God has raised up in times of 
difficulty, to restore public worship and the holy religion of our fore- 
fathers, and to be its protector." '^ 

Why such prescriptions and restrictions? In a word, that the schools 
of France might furnish for her Emperor a nation of soldiers with which 
he might conquer the world. And to this end how well did the central 
thoughts, the fundamental pivots, of his Normal School plan — common 
cloistral life with no free outside touch, military discipline, private in- 
structions, and a ten year engagement to the University service — how well 
did they all minister! 



2Taine : Modern Regime, II : 182. 
3Taine : Ibid., II : 140. 

*Larousse : Grand Dictionnaire Universel du 19 eSiecle, VII: 113. 
''Taine: Modern Regime, II : 152, quoted in note. 
^Taine : Ibid., p. 161, quoted. 

''D'Haussonville : L'Englise Romaine et le Premier Empire, II : 257, 266, 
quoted by Taine: Ibid., II: 175. 



Scole Normale Superieure 31 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE NORMAL SCHOOL FROM 1810 TO 1830. 

And thus was the old Normal School reorganized and reestablished. 
It was opened in November, 1810, installed in the old buildings of the 
College of Plessis, a kind of branch establishment of the College of Louis 
le Grand, an Imperial Lyceum. Bernard Gueroult was at the head aj 
Counsellor, he who later became the distinguished professor of Rhetoric 
at the College of Harcourt. 

A glance at the decree, especially at Article 113, tells us much as to 
the original plan of instruction. It was to be given not in the Normal 
School itself but in the College of France, the Polytechnic School, and 
in the Museum of Natural History. The students were to live their 
common life at the Normal School but to be marched to and from these 
other institutions for instruction in the various studies. But somewhat 
otherwise did it turn out. The men into whose hands was placed the 
administration of the school, Fontanes, Grand Master of the University, 
and the Imperial Council of Education, thought it a mistake to form 
instructors for the University in establishments having nothing in common 
with the University, so they directed differently. 

The decree of 1808 had created the Faculties, both for Paris and the 
Departments, but seemingly with little, as yet, for them to do. This was 
especially true of the Faculties of Letters and of Sciences. In Paris these 
Faculties were constituted with, the former thirteen, and the latter four- 
teen members. In the main these men were competent and broad minded, 
much more so than those in the special schools mentioned. Seeing them, 
then, with little to do and knowing their capability, Fontanes and the 
Imperial Council thought to utilize them for the purposes of the Normal 
School. These two Faculties were then located in the same buildings 
as the Normal School and really became its teachers. 

This arrangement accounts for several things. In the first place it 
accounts for the very different careers of the Paris and the Department 
Faculties — but this is a matter aside which space forbids me more than 
mention. It also accounts, at least in part, for the fact that the Normal 
School was not to a very large extent strictly a professional school. The 
Normal students formed only a portion of a larger studentry and tho 
efforts were made to adapt the work to their needs, it could not be done 
altogether without too great a sacrifice of the others. 

Both institutions were gainers and losers ; it might be hard to say 
in either case on which side the balance would fall. The Normal School 
gained thru having a stronger, freer and more liberal teaching body 
than would otherwise have been provided ; it lost in the sacrifice of its 
own specific, legitimate character of a pedagogical institution. It really 
became an academic instead of a professional school. 

The Paris Faculties of Letters and of Sciences which had thus been 
affiliated with the Normal School gained through having always a stu- 
dentry and an audience, since the Normal students formed a nucleus 
amound which gathered many that would not otherwise have been inter- 
ested. They did not therefore die of inanition as so many of the Depart- 
ment Faculties came near doing. Their only loss was in the swerving 
of their work to meet the needs of the Normal students, which really was 
but slight. 

The studies do not look especially pedagagical as we glance them thru. 
They were, in the early years, botany, mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, 



32 Bcole Normale Superieure 

mineralogj', natural philosophy, chemistry, vegetable physics, zoology, 
philosophy, history of philosophy, history of literature, French poetry and 
eloquence, Latin poetry and eloquence, Greek literature, ancient and mod- 
ern history, and geography. 

The school opened with 37 students. In two years the number had 
reached 77 and the school was engaging the careful attention of many, 
including Napoleon himself. In this year he planned a new building for 
its accommodation, a building to be located on the left bank of the Seine 
and to be in every way suited to its needs and worthy of the great place 
the school was destined to fill in the educational future of the Empire. 
He even issued an order for its erection. But this, like many another of 
the great plans of the great Napoleon, w^as not carried out. The school 
had to wait many years and was destined to pass thru many vicissitudes 
before it was worthily housed. It was, however, in the next year, 1813, 
provided with better quarters by being transferred to the Seminary of 
the Holy Ghost. 

An incident showing that the work of the school was looked upon 
by Napoleon as very important is seen in the passage, in 181 1, of an act 
which exempted the students from military service. 

We recall that the purpose of the Normal School was to furnish 
teachers for the lycees and the colleges. It could not of course at once 
fill all these places, but it soon became more nearly able to do so and as 
rapidly as possible matters were shaped with that end in view. In 1813 
a circular was issued bearing directl}' upon this point. This circular, or 
a portion of it, I quote from Taine : "The number of places that chance 
to fall vacant from year to 3'ear, in the various Universitj^ establishments, 
sensibly diminishes according as the organization of the teaching body 
becomes more complete and regular in its operation, as order and dis- 
cipline are established, and as education becomes graduated and pro- 
portionate to diverse localities. The moment has thus arrived for de- 
claring that the Normal School is henceforth the only road by which 
to enter upon the career of public instruction, it will suffice for all the 
needs of the service." ^ 

The school at this time could not, of course, "suffice for all the needs 
of the service," but Napoleon wanted it to, hence the circular. Indeed, it 
never has, from that day to this, been able to supply the teachers needed 
in the lycees and colleges. Napoleon's circular became a dead letter and 
later other "roads" were definitely opened. But as far as possible, thru 
the selection of teachers, thru the arrangement of studies, and thru the 
"police" regulations, he kept his hand on this school, knowing well that 
with his stamp upon the teachers of France the product of the schools 
was sure to be to his liking. 

But to all the details Napoleon could not attend, his hands being too 
full of governmental and military affairs. His agents, differing somewhat 
from his own special views, tho in the main loyal, gave the institution a 
wider scope and a more liberal turn than he would have wished. Later 
he realized this but when too late to make a change. At St. Helena h.; 
complained that his agents had spoiled all his plans by departing from 
his instructions. And again, his ruling days were being rapidly numbered 
and did not long survive the issuance of the circular just quoted. His 
abdication followed, and under the Restoration the school, thus partially 
prepared, began to breathe a purer air and to live a less restricted life. 

The Restoration, it is true, was but the return to power of the Bour- 
bon dynasty, a King taking the seat vacated by the Emperor. But this 
King, tho he lielieved as fully in absolutism as did the Emperor, and tho 
he was as unscrupulous, did not possess that clearness of intellectual 



^Taine: Modern Regime, II : 159. 



Scale Normale Superieure 33 

vision, that masterly strength of mind and will that enabled the latter to 
see with unerring eye the strategic points and to utilize them for the 
accomplishment of his comprehensive purposes. The Normal School 
was no longer even indirectly directed by a single hand for a single end, 
but was allowed to continue and be shaped by its friends in such a way 
as to begin its preparation for the performance of its own true and proper 
function. Under the supervision of Roger-Collard, President of the Com- 
mission of Public Instruction, it was reorganized in 1815, planned on a 
broader scale and placed on a better footing. 

It was no longer, as very largelj^ it had been thus far, simply an annex 
to the Paris Faculties of Letters and of Sciences with no real personality 
of its own, no faculty and no appropriate courses of study. It now re- 
ceived a regular faculty with additional lecturers on special subjects 
"equal in rank to the first professors in the Imperial Colleges." A year 
was added to the course, making it now three, the third being planned for 
special pedagogical study, taking up, for example, the writings of such as 
Jouvency, Rollin and Fleury. 

In many ways the outlook seemed brighter, the school seemed to be 
coming into its own and her friends looked forward to an uninterrupted 
career of great usefulness. For two or three years the progress of events 
seemed to justify the hopes. But unexpected difficulties arose. The school 
seemed to be losing favor with the government, nor is the reason difficult 
to find. I have already indicated that even before the close of Napoleon's 
career there was in the school' under the supervision of Fontanes and the 
teaching of the Faculty of Paris a spirit of liberalism somewhat in contrast 
to the spirit of absolutism dominant in both the Empire and the Kingdom 
following. I might have put that more strongly; let me do so in the 
words of Liard, who, in speaking of the school at this time, says : "Little 
by little with the Faculty of Letters, around the nucleus formed by the 
students of the Normal School, there formed a large gathering; little by 
little the narrow confines of the College of Plessis * * * * became a 
rendezvous for all those men, both mature and growing, who in those 
days of silence and servitude preserved a care for free thought and inde- 
pendent speech. Already the chair of the professor is becoming a 
tribunate." - 

I suppose it is true, in spite of the efforts of Napoleon to the contrary, 
that the spirit of the school had all the time been, as Larousse says, "lib- 
eral, democratic, and free thinking." There is certainly no doubt that too 
much freedom of teaching and of thought was enjoyed to please a Bour- 
bon. The work was allowed to continue, however, tho under suspicion. 
The improvements and extensions planned were not all made and in many 
ways the work was being seriously hampered. 

In 1821 the school was ordered removed to the Sorbonne, but the re- 
moval did not take place, as orders of a different nature followed close. 
More and more it was being looked upon as a "nest of liberalism," and was 
criticized as fomenting "a spirit of insubordination and ambitious pre- 
tensions" political and religious. The clergy was especially bitter in its 
denunciation. Dangerous to their very existence, they thought, was this 
spirit of free thought and free investigation which the Normal School 
people were daring to turn even to religious matters. The need of sup- 
pressing this "heresy breeding," "atheistic," "Jacobinian" "nursery of free 
thinkers" was openly advocated both by the clergy and the radical royalists. 
But its friends were still strong enough to prevent the fatal blow. In this 
same year, 1821, the Minister of the Interior, M. Corbiere, secured the 
passage of an ordinance which was favored, at least not opposed, by friends 
and enemies alike of the Normal School. The former seemed to think 



2Liard : L'Enseignement Superieure en France, 11:134. 



34 £cole Normale Superieure 

that the threatened suppression would thereby be prevented, the latter 
that it would be hastened. I refer to the ordinance looking toward the 
formation of what were called "partial normal schools." It bears the 
date February 27, 1821, and is, in part, as follows : 

"Art. 24. — There shall be established partial normal schools, near the 
Royal Colleges of Paris which shall be boarding schools, also near the 
Royal Colleges of the chief place of each Academy. 

"Art. 26. — The course of study for these shall be four years. Some 
of those who complete it shall remain for two years as Ushers in the col- 
lege where they shall have been pupils. The others shall be sent to the 
great Normal School at Paris. 

"Art. 27. — All the students of the partial normal schools shall be as 
those of the great Normal School at Paris, and in keeping with Article 
112 of the decree of March 17, 1808, under obligation to remain in the 
teaching profession for ten years." ^ 

In advocacy of his measure M. Corbiere saidj "In these schools a 
small number of select pupils shall be prepared from childhood in those 
studies and habits which belong to the grave and serious profession to 
which they are destined. Candidates so trained will not disdain subor- 
dinate studies, and thus there will prevail throughout the whole body of 
teachers the spirit of order and conservatism." * 

But in this measure the friends of the Normal School were disap- 
pointed. The hostility had not ceased. The open antagonism was not 
abated. The school was attacked by a powerful party and was soon 
forced to bow before the storm. The blow came in a brief ordinance 
dated September 9, 1822, which is thus worded : "The great Normal 
School of Paris is suppressed; it shall be replaced by the Partial Normal 
Schools of the Academies." " 

The immediate occasion of the ordinance was a burst of applause 
given by the school on the bestowal of certain honors upon the laureate 
Jordan, son of the liberal deputy, Camille Jordan. But as Liard says, "This 
was only a pretext. In the suppression they wished to destroy the source 
of ideas and of liberalism." *' This same thought was voiced by a historian 
of the times who says : "That suppression announces the intention to 
direct public education according to a system contrary to that which has 
favored, since 1789, the increase of intelligence in the middle classes." ^ 

The suppression, too, was intended to be permanent. It was not like 
that of the Faculty of Medicine which occurred about the same time or 
that of the University as a whole, in 1815, which was planned to be only 
temporary, as steps necessarily preliminary to a rearrangement. The nine 
professors, among whom were Cousin, Jouffroy and Burnouf, and fifty- 
eight students were scattered ; the library was removed and placed at the 
headquarters of the Academy; all equipment, laboratory instruments, etc., 
were given to the Faculty of Science, and the doors firmly closed. The 
"ficole Normale" had ceased to be. The professors and students, however, 
continued to receive their regular salaries and fellowship fees for two 
years. 

But the partial normal schools were not successful. Such a scattering 
could not be conducive to good work. Efforts were made to improve 
matters but to no effect. They attracted but few students and the work 
was indifferently carried on. Their failure, as taking the place of the 
old Normal School, was apparent to all. 



sRendu: Code Universitaire, p. 221. 

■*Barnard: National Education, (1872) p. 325. 

sRendu : Code Universitaire, p. 222. 

^Liard : L'Enseignement Superieure en France, II : 164. 

■^L'Abbe de Montgaillard : Histoire de France, (1827) IX: 107. 



£cole Normale Superieure 35 

The following statement, made in 1828, shows the general popular 
feeling toward the two schools: "These kinds of schools have had only 
an imperfect and unfruitful existence. People unfortunately thought or 
pretended to think that they would be able to replace the Normal School, 
and that great school, which already was gaining a good reputation, was 
destroyed. It began to be reestablished in 1826 but under the appellation, 
equivocal and obscure, of 'preparatory school.' It is to be hoped that it 
will not long be prevented from recovering its first and true name, together 
with all the deductions of that name, a habitation suited to its needs, and a 
•special head." ^ 

This reestablishment in 1826, or rather, the first step toward a re- 
establishment, was taken thru an ordinance of March 9th, reducing the 
number of the semi-normals, or partial normals, but planning an improve- 
ment of the work of those remaining. The name also was to be changed 
to "preparatory schools." But no such general action followed. However, 
under the cover of this ordinance there was established a new school called 
"A Preparatory School of Letters and Sciences" which later became the 
ficole Normale. Its establishment was due to the work of M. de Frays- 
sinous, Bishop of Hermopolis, Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and of 
Public Instruction; he had been Minister of Public Instruction and thus 
Grand Master of the Uuniversity since June, 1882. It was therefore under 
his administration that the Normal School had been suppressed. He, how- 
ever, had not favored the suppression but like others had been compelled 
to bow before the storm. He "had hoped for good results to proceed from 
the partial normal schools but in that hope had been disappointed. With 
the general admission of the failure he saw his opportunity and thus 
planned the re-establishment of the old school. But with the change of 
government from bad to worse, with absolutism firmly seated on the 
throne and with the old ecclesiastical foes scenting danger from afar, it 
was necessary for him to move with circumspection. And so he disguised 
his real purpose by calling the institution not "ficole Normale," but the 
more modest name "ficole Preparatoire." 

It was opened in 1826 in the College of Louis le Grand with 19 stud- 
ents. Working under difficulties the growth was slow. Still it grew, ad- 
vanced, and was surely making friends so that when the change in govern- 
ment drew near, a change that was bound to come sooner or later, the 
school was ready at once to enter upon its new life. In 1829, now number- 
ing 49 students, it took a significant step forward. This the students did 
by effecting an organization among themselves which we might call a 
"pedagogical club" or "teachers' association" for the avowed purpose of 
givmg the work a professional flavor. But this organization, while seem- 
ingly harmless and confined to the student bod}-, was in reality a very 
ambitious undertaking that looked to the future. The direction of all the 
work done was in the hands of experienced masters and the whole scheme 
managed by a carefully chosen committee of University Inspectors. 

Now came the July Revolution, the new spirit, the hope for the future. 
The Normal School was ready to enter upon its inheritance, nor was the 
inheritance withheld. One of the very first acts of the new government 
was that which bestowed the old name on this child of the old School. 
The ordinance is dated Aug. 6th, 1830. and reads thus: "The school des- 
tined to form professors and designated for some years under the name 
of "Preparatory School" shall take again that of "Normal School." There 
shall immediately be proposed measures for completing the organization 
of that school in a manner conformable to all the needs of public instruc- 
tion." 9 



^Rendu : Code Universitaire, p. 221 (note). 
^Rendu : Code Universitaire, p. 223. 



36 Ecole Normale Superieure 

On the same day, in accordance with the promise found in the ordin- 
ance, M. Victor Cousin, probably the most eminent French educator of the 
day, was placed at the head of the school. He had been a student, and at 
the time of the suppression was one of the professors of the old school 
and at this time also secretary of the Council of Public Instruction. He 
immediately began his work and in October made a report recommending 
many improvements, all of which were substantially adopted, and under 
their impulse the school began its new and larger work. 

Dr. Bache visited the school in 1838, and writing of it the next year 
says : "New regulations for the course of studies, the general arrange- 
ments and discipline, have been gradually prepared, and the school has 
commenced a career of usefvilness which it bids fair to prosecute with in- 
creasing success."^ 

Dr. Barnard, writing later of the same institution as working undt.; 
the influence of this impulse, says : "The school became famous and was 
regarded by the enemies as well as the friends of the University, as the 
best of its class ever established." ^ 



^Bache: Education in Europe, (1839) p. 441. 
^Barnard : National Education, (1872) p. 326. 



£cole Normalc Supcricure 37 

CHAPTER VII. 

REORGANIZATION. WORK FROM 1830 TO 1848. 

The improvements brought about under the general administration 
of Cousin it is worth while to trace quite carefully since upon the foun- 
dations laid at this time the school has, in the main, continued to work 
even up to the present. True, minor changes were made from time to 
time especially following the change of government in 1848 and again 
in 1870, but yet the broad outlines traced in the early thirties have been 
substantially retained. 

I. 
ADMISSION. 

Among these improvements perhaps no one is of more importance 
than the regulations for admis^sion which were adopted Feb. i8th, 1834. 

The decree of 1808, it will be remembered, had provided for admis- 
sion solely from the lyceums, and upon examination. But as a matter 
of fact, up to 1834 few had been chosen in this way. By far the greater 
number had been appointed by the Rectors and Inspectors without any 
examination whatever — merely upon personal knowledge of fitness and 
merit, or upon recommendation, request or demand of influential per- 
sonages. One can easily find many good reasons for deviating some- 
what from the strict lines marked out in the decree. And it is only 
fair to say that, in the main, the school had not greatly suffered from 
such deviation. But now, in view of the growing interest in the school 
and of the larger future opening before it, the matter of admission 
needed careful attention. It might be well to say, at the outset, that 
the old regulation as to admission by examination was revived. But 
the examinations were made more severe and were hedged about in 
many ways. They were all to be competitive and to them no one was 
to be admitted who did not already hold a college diploma. 

In order to become enrolled as a student of the school it was neces- 
sary for the young man to win in two examinations one at least of which 
was strongly competitive. The first, the less competitive of the two, 
was held in the Academy, the second at the school in Paris, where the 
Academy winners contested. 

But not all who might choose to present themselves were admitted 
even to this Academy examination. It was not easy of approach and 
many annually fell by the wayside. 

To become a candidate it was necessary for the young man to regis- 
ter with the secretary of the Academy some time between the 15th of 
June and the 15th of July. As a part of this registration the following 
documents were deposited: i. A certificate of birth showing that on 
Jan. 1st of the year of registry the candidate was between the ages of 
17 and 23. 2nd. A certificate of vaccination. 3rd. In case of minority, a 
legalized statement frorh the father or guardian authorizing the candi- 
date to devote ten years to public instruction. 4th. A certificate of 



38 - 6cole Normale Superieure 

character signed by the heads of the institutions formerly attended. 
Sth. A certificate of scholarship showing that the required academic 
courses had been completed. 

On closing the registration, the applications, together with the ac- 
companying documents and the judgment of the Academy Rector on 
each candidate, were immediately sent by messenger to the Minister 
of Public Instruction at Paris. They were carefully examined and be- 
fore the first of August lists of the candidates fulfilling all the require- 
ments and thus admitted to the examination were sent to the various 
Rectors whose duty it was, in turn, to notify the candidates. The ex- 
aminations which were both oral and written were to begin on the 5th 
of August and close on the loth, the same subjects and same questions 
being used in all the Academies. The chief examiner was the Rector 
but in the oral work he was assisted by a committee of three. 

For the candidates who looked forward to becoming instructors 
in letters the written exercises consisted of a philosophical disseration 
in French, an essay in each Latin and French, translation of Greek and 
Latin authors and the writing of Latin prose. The oral work covered 
the authors sudied in college and the elements of philosophy, history 
and rhetoric. The science students had, for written work, the same 
philosophical dissertation and Latin prose, they had work in mathe- 
matics and physics. Their oral examination covered work done in 
mathematics, physics and philosophy. 

On the loth of August all written exercises and reports of the oral 
work were sent the Minister of Public Instruction and by him turned 
over to two committees of the Normal School Faculty, one on Letters 
and one on Sciences, the Director being chairman of both. These two 
committees, thru a careful examination of all papers and documents, 
decided who were worthy to enter the final examination for full admis- 
sion. These were immediately notified to report for such examination 
on October 15th. Before entering upon it, however, the candidates were 
required to deposit their diplomas of bachelor of letters or of science.^ 

This final examination was held at Paris, was oral and conducted 
by two committees of the Normal Faculty. But it was not so severe, at 
least did not continue so long as the one in the Academy, often lasting 
not more than an hour for each section. At its close the two commit- 
tees, sitting together under the presidency of the Directors, compared 
the results with those of the Academy examination and on the basis of 
merit made out a list of those to be finally admitted. The list was sent 
to the Minister of Public Instruction and by him submitted to the Royal 
Council before the 25th of October. In the end the appointments came 
directly from the King. All documents relative to admission, together 
with all examination papers, were kept on file by the Director. 

Since the chief purpose of the school was then, as indeed it had 
been from the beginning, to furnish the colleges with well equipped 
professors, the number of students called for each year was determined 
by the prospective needs of the colleges. The matter of such deter- 
mination and the fixing of such number was in the hands of the Minister 
of Public Instruction, aided by the Royal Council. The number of 
students applying for admission was always greatly in excess of the 
number needed to fill the vacancies. I have no statistics bearing upon 
the matter at this particular time but in 1865, 3/^ candidates presented 
themselves for 35 vacancies, nor is this an unusual showing. It will 
thus be easily seen that the few admitted were really picked men, and 



*Later, this diploma was deposited at the time of registration as 
were the other documents. 



£,cole Normale Superieure 39 

picked, too, from a relatively large number of men all of whom were 
doubtless well equipped. 



COURSES OF STUDY. 

The same resolution that so carefully and thoroly arranged the de- 
tails of admission to the Normal School also thoroly revised and sys- 
tematized the general matters of instruction within. The course was of 
three years duration. The students were separated into two sections, 
one of letters and one of science. From the first year they were quite 
distinct yet having some points of contact. I will outline the work of 
the two sections separately. 

Section of Letters. 

The work of the first year was little more than a very thoro review 
of the ground already covered in the college, that of the second aimed to 
extend the knowledge thus gained. The third year looked upon the stud- 
ents as prospective professors and the studies were selected and prose- 
cuted according to the particular line of instruction to be undertaken. 
First Year: 

1. Greek language and literature, three lessons a week with the em- 
phasis placed on grammar, translations and composition. 

2. Latin language and liteVature, three lessons a week with the em- 
phasis as in Greek. 

3. Ancient history, three lessons a week with the emphasis upon in- 
stitutions, customs, religion, arts and antiquities. 

4. Philosophy somewhat more advanced than that given in the col- 
lege, three lessons a week. 

5. Mathematics, physics and natural history to be reviewed in a 
course of two lessons a week, one under the direction of the professors 
and the other with the students meeting alone. 

6. German and English, to be studied in a course of one lesson a 
week under the guidance of a student. 

The first year's work closed with an examination conducted not by 
the NormaL Faculty but by the Inspector General of the University. The 
passing of this examination admitted to the second year's work, failure to 
pass necessitated the student's withdrawal from the institution. Students 
who were regularly enrolled for the second year's work were privileged 
to present themselves before the University Faculty of Letters for the 
licentiate examination in letters. 

Not all, however, who passed the first year's work went on to the 
second. A resolution of June 17th, 1834, provided that those who were 
considered particularly adapted for work in the grammar classes of the 
colleges should pass immediately into the third year's work in the special 
grammar conference, or department. This did not, however, necessarily 
cut their normal courses short by a year since provision was made for 
another year's work in this conference if the work had been thoroly satis- 
factory. In 1843, Nov. 2ist, a clause was added providing definitely for 
the two years work along this line. 

Dr. Bache has an interesting statement on this matter, probably taken, 
in substance, from Cousin's report for the year 1835 and 1836 which is not 
before me: "When the pupil intends to devote himself to teaching in the 
grammar classes of the college, or is found not to have the requisite ability 
for taking a high rank in the body of instructors, he passes at once from 
the first year's course to the third, and competes, accordingly, in the ex- 
amination of adjuncts. The consequences of the low esteem in which the 
grammar studies are held, have been much deplored by the present Direc- 



40 £cole Normale Superieure 

tor of the school (M. Cousin) and a reform in regard to them has been 
attempted with partial success." ^ 

Dr. Bach's work was written in 1839, five years after the first change 
mentioned and four before the second. It throws some light upon this 
interesting point. 
Second Year: 

In this year the work in the languages and philosophy was to be much 
more advanced, emphasis no longer being placed upon technique and ele- 
ments, rather on the content and historical development. 

The courses were five, each having two recitations a week. 

1. History of Greek literature with translation and prose. 

2. History of Roman literature with translation and prose. 

3. History of French literature paying special attention, thru critical 
literary exercises and composition, to the cultivation of taste and style. 

4. History, Mediaeval and Modern. 

5. History of Philosophy. 

The work of the second year also closed with an examination con- 
ducted, in the main, by the Inspectors General. Students passing this sec- 
ond year examination who did not receive the licentiate at the close of the 
first were now expected to present themselves. Failure to pass the severe 
licentiate examination necessitated withdrawal. It was based almost wholly 
upon Greek and Latin Masterpieces, and consisted in essays, translations, 
explanations, and the answering of questions on history, philosophy, phil- 
ology, &c., touched upon in the various selections chosen, which varied 
from year to year. 
Third Year: 

The third year being the closing year of the Normal School course the 
work was made more strictly professional, pedagogic rather than acade- 
mic ends being sought and methods followed. The instruction, thus far 
common, now became more special. Each student was engaged upon 
studies and exercises most comformable to his taste and aptitude as re- 
vealed by his former work and his examinations. The section of letters 
was separated into divisions or classes corresponding to the four different 
lines of work carried on in the college; grammar, letters, history and phil- 
osophy. Each student found his place in one of the divisions, and for that 
alone was held responsible. The work for the third year, then, was out- 
lined separately for each of the four divisions. 

Since we have here the central point of the vital work of the Normal 
School I will not mar the resolution by attempting a paraphrase, or sum- 
mary, but give, rather, a close translation :^ 
"i. Grammar Division: 

"A course corresponding to the grammar classes of the colleges. The 
Masters of Conferences shall explain to the students and cause them to 
explain, orally or in writing, the most important questions which the par- 
ticular grammars present, Greek or Latin : he shall explain to them be- 
sides and cause them to explain to one another in as thoro a manner as 
possible from the grammatical and philosophical points of review a certain 
number of Greek and Latin texts. Finally he shall exercise them in the 
criticism and method of teaching, by demanding of them compositions 
which they shall examine reciprocally and thru requiring them to conduct 
under his eyes veritable classes. 
"2. Letters Division: 

"A course corresponding to the advanced classes in letters. The Mas- 
ters of Greek Conferences in charge of the courses in Greek, Latin and 
French literature shall submit to the examination and discussion of stud- 



2Bache : Education in Europe, p. 444. 
3Rendu : Code Universitaire, p. 794. 



£colc Nonnale Snperieure 41 

ents a certain number of questions of criticism and literary history. They 
shall examine with them the rules of interpretation and translation of 
authors, the general principles of the art of writing and of composition, 
both in prose and verse, and shall cause them to apply these rules and 
principles to the subjects or texts chosen. They shall also train them in 
the art of teaching by means of lessons expressly chosen for that purpose 
which the students shall conduct in their presence. The Master of Con- 
ference of French literature will need also to institute frequent compari- 
sons between the masterpieces of that and foreign literatures. 
"3. History Division: 

A course in general history in which the professor, by suggesting for 
the study of the students matters chosen from all parts of ancient and 
modern history, shall form an historical criticism and shall cause them to 
become acquainted with the most important works, works which can be 
looked upon as models of their kind. Nevertheless, he shall not neglect 
the art of exposition essential to the technique of history. 
"4. Philosophy Division: 

"A course in philosophy where the instruction of the preceding years 
shall be reviewed and reproduced under the form of problems borrowed 
either in science or in history. These the professors shall give to the 
students for discussion and thus cause them to review the different solu- 
tions that have been suggested and to criticise the results of former re- 
searches. He shall lay particular emphasis upon the methods to be used 
and, like his colleagues, require the students to conduct recitations in 
preparation for which he will give them all the directions and all the ad- 
vice necessary in order to fashion them into professors as practical as 
learned. 

"The students of the third year, independently of their required con- 
ferences, shall follow the courses of the faculties of letters and of sciences 
which shall be designated to them according to their special divisions. 
They shall hold themselves ready to respond to all the questions which 
the professors address them. They shall frequently visit also the courses 
in the College of France and other public institutions. With the consent 
of the Director they are permitted to go, in the interests of their studies, 
and at convenient hours to work in the libraries, to consult manuscripts, 
visit museums and monuments." * 

The work of the third year, like that of the others, closed with an 
examination in July. The students were expected also to present them- 
selves for the examination leading to aggregation, each according to his 
aptitude and the division of studies followed during his third year. 

Section of Sciences. 

The studies of the science section, in the reorganization of the work 
in 1834, were common to all the students thruout the three years, there 
being no separation, at the close of the second year as in the section of 
letters, into divisions based on taste and aptitude. There was then but 
one aggregation in science but in 1840 the science work was more carefully 
differentiated. From this time there were, for the third year, two divisions, 
one emphasizing the physical, the other the mathematical sciences, each 
student electing the one or the other. The corresponding change was 
made in the matter of aggregation. 

Instead of giving, for this section, the work as outlined in 1834, I give 
the course as followed in 1835 and 1836. Since the differences lie in the 
direction of the separation already mentioned. This outline I borrow 



*Rendu: Code Universitaire, p. 794. 



42 Rcole Normale Superieure 

from Dr. Bache to whom it was furnished directly by M. Viguier, director 
of studies at that time. 

"First Year: 

1. Astronomy, two lessons a week. 

2. Descriptive Geometry, two lessons. 

3. Chemistry, two lectures, one lesson and four hours of manipulation. 

4. Botany, one lesson. 

5. Philosophy, two lessons. 

6. German language, one lesson. 

7. Drawing, one lesson during the week and one on Sunday. 

"Second Year: 

1. Physics, two lectures, two lessons and one hour of manipulation. 

2. Chemistry, two lectures. 

3. Botany, one lesson. 

4. Vegetable Physiology, two lectures. 

5. Calculus of Probabilities, two lectures and two lessons. 

6. Differential and Integral Calculus, two lectures and two lessons. 

7. Drawing, one lesson during the week and one on Sunday. 

"Third Year: 

1. Mechanics, four lectures and two lessons. 

2. Chemical analysis, two lectures and one hour of manipulation. 

3. Chemistry, one lecture. 

4. Natural history, two lessons. 

5. Geology, one lesson. 

6. Botany, one lesson. 

7. Drawing, one lesson. 

On Sunday the students make botanical and geological excursions 
into the environs." ^ 

In connection with the work in Chemistry and Physics the word 
"manipulation" has been used and time for it allowed. This refers to lab- 
oratory practice in those sciences. A word might be added regarding this 
work. As one should expect it was very limited, and for many reasons. 
In the first place the laboratory method of studying science was then in 
its infancy, and was applied only in chemistry and physics. The general 
method being in its infancy the apparatus was both limited and crude. 
And tho at this time and in this school the value of the method was rec- 
ognized and the work carefully outlined for each month of the year, 
nevertheless the work was of a very elementary character and in no sense 
far-reaching. But yet, let me urge this very significant fact that this much 
was done : the principle was recognized and adopted and provision made 
for its actual working. 

In addition to these scientific courses, the students, particularly of the 
first year, were required to follow the courses of philosophy, history, lit- 
erature and the modern languages given in the school. At the close of 
each year the science students underwent examinations in a somewhat 
similar manner as already described for those of letters. The licentiate 
of mathematical science might be taken at the close of the second, and of 
physical science at the close of the third year's work. These examinations 
were given, again, not by the Normal School faculty but by the University 
Faculty of Science of Paris. 

Tho the one function of the Normal School was at this time, as it 
had been from the beginning, the fitting of men for college positions, an 



^Bache: Education in Europe, p. 446. 



Scole Nonnale Supericure 43 

honorable completion of the full Normal School course did not carry with 
it the coveted position, nor did it even put one upon the available list, so 
to speak, from which professors were chosen as needed. The passing of 
another examination was needed for registration upon this waiting list. 
This was called the examination for aggregation. In it they met and com- 
peted, on a par, with students prepared elsewhere. The competition was 
keen and the examination very difficult. While saying that the results of 
these competitive examinations do not furnish an exact criterion of the 
relative strength of the school, Dr. Bache gives the interesting result of 
the examination held in 1836. Out of 28 places to be filled, 18 were filled 
by students from the Normal School. 

3- 
AGGREGATION. 

It may not be out of place to dwell briefly upon this matter of "aggre- 
gation" or "fellowship" as it is sometimes called, since in our country we 
have no term corresponding to it. The term "aggregation" refers to a 
certain educational position and "agrege" to the one filling such a position. 
The position is that of adjunct or assistant professor, so to speak, and the 
chief duty of one holding the position consists in filling the place of the 
professor in his absence. 

Historically, aggregation dates from 1766, four years after the ex- 
pulsion of the Jesuits from France, when three were established, one each 
in grammar, history and philosophy. The position was then created for 
the purpose of securing teachers to take the places of those thus barred. 
From that time on competitive examinations formed the gateway leading 
to aggregation, and aggregation the gateway to desirable teaching posi- 
tions. These examinations were "designed to test ability to teach gram- 
mar, classics, and philosophy, the successful candidates being "attached" 
or "aggregated" to the university." *^ From the list of agreges thus made 
up temporary vacancies were filled and permanent appointments eventually 
made. During the progress of the Revolution aggregation, as so many 
other educational provisions, was entirely swept away. But it was re- 
vived in 1808 and without material alteration again made a part of the 
system. 

It was not, however, till 1821 that the provisions of the law were car- 
ried out. In that year the first examination was held as a result of which 
47 agreges were installed, 3 in science, 20 in letters and 24 in grammar. 
To these three aggregations others were added from time to time as made 
necessary by the increased interest in certain lines of work or by the gen- 
eral development of the educational system. In 1825, a special aggregation 
in philosophy was added, in 1830, one in history, and in 1840, another in 
science, making two, one in mathematical and one in physical science. 

There were, then, from 1840 on, for some years, six aggregations all 
open to graduates of the Normal School and to others suitably prepared. 
I do not know how better I can give the high value placed on the aggre- 
gation or the real position held by the Normal Sschool than by giving the 
requirements for admission to this competitive examination. Those ad- 
mitted to competition must be either : 

1. Graduates of the Normal School, 

2. Principals or Regents of Communal Colleges, 

3. Directors of Studies of Royal or Communal Colleges, with an 
experience of two years, 

4. Masters of Courses in Royal Colleges with an experience of two 
years. 



^Barnard: National Education, (1827) p. 317. 



44 £cole Normale Superieure 

5. Heads of Institutions and Masters of Boarding Schools with an 
experience of two years, or 

6. Ushers in Institutions and Boarding Schools with an experience 
of three years, when recommended by the Rector. 

In all these cases the term of practical experience might be waived 
for those holding a doctor's degree in letters or science. 

In addition to the above requirements each candidate was required V) 
hold certain degrees, as follows : For competition in philosophy, the dt ■ 
grees of Licentiate of Letters and of Bachelor of Science ; in mathematical 
science. Licentiate of Mathematical and of Physical Science; in physical 
and natural sciences. Licentiate of Mathematical of Physical and of Nat- 
ural Science ; in letters, Licentiate of Letters ; in history. Licentiate of 
Letters ; and in grammar, Bachelor of Letters." 

These were requirements implying qualification of a superior grade, 
and it might be thought that, at any rate from an academic standpoint, 
college professors might safely be chosen from a list of men thus equipped 
without any further examination. No doubt it would have been safe and 
have given the colleges good men but yet, note again that the fulfilling of 
these requirements merely admitted to a competitive examination compre- 
hensive and severe. The people of France required for their college pro- 
fessors men not only sufficiently well equipped to do the work but men 
whose equipment was the broadest and whose mental powers were the 
keenest. So they took men meeting all the above requirements, subjected 
them to a searching competitive test and from the large number allowed 
to compete selected for the relatively few needed those most satisfactory, 
if indeed there were even that few who reached a certain high standard 
of excellence. For example, I cite two cases. They come a little later, 
it is true, but yet clearly illustrate the statement. In 1863, in the compe- 
tition in philosophy, out of 55 contestants only ten agreges were appointed, 
and in 1866, in the recently instituted aggregation of secondary instruction, 
out of 27 contestants only six were appointed. 

Now, these selected were placed upon the waiting list as has already 
been suggested and considered available to supply temporary vacancies or 
to receive permanent appointments. Once admitted to a certain aggrega- 
tion the agrege was permitted to teach only the subjects of that aggrega- 
tion unless examined for and admitted into another, against which there 
was no law. 



FACULTY. * * * * BUILDINGS. 

In 1837 the official board, or Faculty, was made up of some 22 men. 
At the head, as Director, was M. Victor Cousin, who was also Secretary 
of the Council of the University. He did not, however, reside at the 
school as this official had formerly been required to do, nor did he have 
any direct connection with the definite work of instruction. The Director 
was at the head of the governing body of the institution a position prac- 
tically the same as the chairmanship of the board of regents or council of 
an American institution. 

The second in official position, as resident head and Director of 
Studies, was M. Viguier, whose duties were practically the same as those 
performed by the President of an American university. He was assisted 
by a sub-director or dean, whose work was the general supervision of the 
students, and by two others working under the latter and called super- 



TRendu: Code Universitaire, p. 566. 



&cole Normale Superieiire 45 

intending masters. Aside from these there were, as regular members of 
the teaching force, 15 professors, or masters of conferences, 8 for the sec- 
tion of letters and 7 for the section of science. There were also 2 others 
called preparers whose work was, as the term indicates, of a more ele- 
mentary nature. In this year, 1837, the school enrolled 80 students, 49 of 
whom were being wholly supported by government funds, royal scholar- 
ships, &c., while for 18 others about one-half the expenses were thus be- 
ing defrayed. The remaining 13 were self-supporting. 

Dr. Bache in his visit at this time found the school still located in 
some of the buildings belonging to the Royal College of Louis-le-Grande 
where, it will be remembered, it was re-established after its suppression in 
1822. The College at this time furnished not only the buildings for the 
Normal School but as well the food and clothing of the students, these 
latter, however, not gratuitously. 

This close connection of the Normal School with the College gave 
the former both advantages and distadvantages. On the one hand it 
furnished the Normal School students with opportunities for practice 
teaching under guidance.* There was also, doubtless, an intellectual at- 
mosphere of greater or less value. But on the other hand there were dis- 
advantages and Dr. Bache says that they "more than counter balanced" the 
advantages. "The accommodation for lodging, study, instruction, and ex- 
ercise, as far as the buildings and its site are concerned, are certainly of a 
most limited kind." ^ 

But inadequate as were the accommodations and zealous as were the 
friends of the school in their efforts to secure better, it was some time be- 
fore these efforts were entirely fruitful. It will be remembered that Na- 
poleon, away back in 1812, had formed ambitious plans for such a purpose ; 
also that in 1828, when it looked as tho the school was to be resurrected, 
the hope of "a habitation suited to its needs" was voiced. And now again 
as Dr. Bach says, "The friends of the school are earnest in their endeavors 
to procure a separate domicile for it." ^ 

Real needs for a work appreciated by an intelligent people are not 
usually postponed indefinitely, however. Under the general direction of 
Cousin and the immediate supervision of Viguier the school was more and 
more justifying its raison d'etre. A new home was needed, and it was 
forthcoming. Napoleon's plan of 1812 was revived. The matter was 
brought before the Chamber of Deputies and soon after, March 9th, 1841, 
the decree of reconstruction was passed. Additional land was purchased 
and the erection of a new and commodious building immediately begun. 
The improvements completed represented an outlay of $395,000, but gave 
to the school a home well suited to its needs and one in which it might 
well take pride. The formal dedication took place at the opening of the 
school in November, 1847,2 and the future seemed well assured. 

Matthew Arnold, writing of the School in 1866 said, among other 
things : "This school is on the Rue d'Ulm, in the old school quarter of 
Paris on the left bank of the Seine, where the Sorbonne and by far the 
greater number of the lycees and centers of instruction are still to be 
fovmd. The building is large and handsome, something like one of the 
colleges at Oxford or Cambridge ; it has chapel, library and garden ; the 
tricolor flag waves over the entrance. Everything is beautifully neat and 



"This statement is based in what Dr. Bache says. I find no specific 
reference elsewhere to practice teaching, but Dr. Bache doubtless 
reported what he saw. 

»Bache : Education in Europe, p. 441. 

^Bache: Ibid., p. 441. 

^Authorities differ as to the date of occupation, some giving 1846, 
others 1847. 



46 Scale Normale Superieure 

well kept; the life in common which economy compels these great estab- 
lishments, in France, severely to practice, has, — when its details are 
precisely and perfectly, attended to, and when, as at the ficole Normale, 
the resources allow a certain finish and comfort much beyond the strict 
needs of the barrack or hospital, — a more imposing effect for the eye 
than the arrangement of college rooms." ^ 

During the erection of the new building, but before its completion, 
on Dec. 6th, 1845, when new things were in the air, the name of the school 
was changed from "ficole Normale" to "ficole Normale Superieure," to 
distinguish it from Normal Schools of a lower rank. And by this latter 
name it has since been known. 

5- 

PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS. 

We have been considering the courses of study and the general regu- 
lations of a normal school, and of the most celebrated and unique normal 
school of all history. It is pertinent therefore to enquire as to certain 
professional aspects always connected by us with any establishment having 
for its end the education of teachers. 

I refer especially to specific pedagogical instruction and practice teach- 
ing, the two pivots, as it were, upon which the entire theory of our modern 
normal school turns. For tho educational leaders may and indeed do differ 
as to the kind and amount of pedagogical instruction, whether theoretical 
or practical work shall predominate and whether, for example, History 
of Education or Psychology shall in the main be studied, nevertheless all 
are agreed that pedagogical instruction must form a respectable portion 
of the work given. And again, tho educators differ radically as to the 
matter of practice teaching, whether the elementary school which forms 
a part of the normal school equipment shall be a school of practice or one 
of observation, whether the students shall actually try their "prentice hand" 
or simply observe the process as performed by an expert, still all are agreed 
that this elementary school should always be found, that without it the 
institution, whatever else it may or may not be, is certainly not a normal 
school. 

Prior to the reorganization and extension of the work in 1834 we have 
found little said about pedagogical instruction and nothing about practice 
teaching. The only statements found in courses of study or in general 
directions that even suggest the matter of professionalism aside from the 
name "Normal School" sO frequently used, are such vague, general ones 
as that the students are to learn the "art of teaching," the instructors shall 
give lessons in the "art of teaching," "the students shall transmit the meth- 
ods of instruction," and the statement made in connection with the re- 
organization of the work in 1815 that the added year should be devoted 
largely to pedagogical instruction. 

It was recognized that there was such an art as the "art of teaching," 
it was thought that that art could in some way be imparted, learned, and 
put into practice, but beyond such recognition and such thought no one 
ventured to go. 

There was no systematic reflective study of the problem of education 
itself in either its history, its theory or its practice. This is true in spite 
of that third year added in 1815 since we know that that provision was not 
fully carried out owing to the difficulties of the time and the suppression 
that so soon followed. 

As a matter of practice, must not the thought have been of this "art 



^Barnard: National Education, (1872) p. 331. 



£cole Normale Superieure 47 

of teaching" of which we find them saying so much, that it was something 
that could not be taught directly thru the learning and reciting of the text 
book lessons, but something that must be given and received passim, pos- 
sibly, nay probably, unconsciously? And acting upon this belief did not 
the governing bodies choose for their instructors men whom they con- 
sidered great teachers confidently believing that the example of such, their 
manner and the breathing out of their spirit acting upon impressible 
natures would in turn produce great teachers? Many illustrations could 
be given to substantiate such a belief whether or not it was held and made 
the basis of action. But I will take space for but a single one, tho an 
illustrious one— the celebrated Director of the Normal School during its 
most critical period, that of reorganization in the thirties— M. Victor 
Cousin. Was it not under the inspiration of those great teachers Lar- 
omiguiere, Maime de-Biran and Royer-Callard, that while a student of this 
very school, the divine spark of his teacher soul was fanned into a flame? 
He called the three the "triple discipline" and said of a day with Laromi- 
guiere, "That day decided my whole life." 

And who is ready to say that such a method of procedure is not more 
nearly right than ours? Who to say that we are wiser in going to the 
other extreme and, acting upon the assumption that that most spiritual of 
all arts can be taught thru lessons on methods and devices, selecting our 
normal school teachers merely on the basis of scholarship wholly disre- 
garding that most important of all elements in a teacher's make-up, teach- 
ing ability, and our grade teachers on mere ability to learn and apply cer- 
tain cut and dried methods and devices, again wholly disregarding both 
spirit and knowledge? 

So we find that during the first 40 years of the life of this great nor- 
mal school the only equipment it was thought the teacher needed, or if not 
exactly the only equipment needed, certainly the only equipment it was 
thought that the school could furnish him thru a specific course of instruc- 
tion consisted of an intellectual development and a thoro mastery of the 
subjects he was henceforth to teach. 

But with the reorganization and under the directing genius of this 
same Cousin, to meet the needs of the remarkable educational awakening 
of the time, the old conservative position, the extreme just now dwelt 
upon, was abandoned. True, we do not find that they went very far that 
the pendulum swung to the other side of the arc, but yet the courses do 
now recognize more fully than before the two pivots, as I have called them, 
of our modern normal school, pedagogical instruction and practice teach- 
ing. 

For such recognition let me refer the reader to the courses of study 
already given. In the outline of work for the four divisions of the third 
year in the section of letters the matters are treated. The thoughts are 
couched in quite general terms but yet, since the departure had but just 
been made, the directions are as specific as we could expect. But tho stated 
in general terms, they are stated and with sufficient clearness to indicate 
to us that they were held to be of the utmost importance in the preparation 
of even advanced teachers. 

I am not saying that at once the directions were fully followed and 
that a thoroly outlined system of pedagogical instruction was from that 
time an organic part of the course of study. That would not be true 
Matters of great moment, as systems of thought or education, do not come 
forth full formed as Minerva is said to have sprung from the head of Jove, 
or as a mushroom springs up in a night time. Rather, they are slow of 
growth. First the central idea is born, takes possession of a few, then, 
as a result of reflection, an addition is made here, another there, a change 
on this side and one on that until the original conception, if it' has com- 



48 S,cole Normale Stiperieure 

mended itself to a sufficient number of leaders in its department and dem- 
onstrated its usefulness, has grown into an organic whole. 

It was thus in the case under discussion. In 1794 we find the idea 
dimly conceived. By 1834 it had sufficiently developed so as to be capable 
of relatively clear statement. Four years later resolutions were passed 
relative to practice teaching which show clearly that the idea was gaining 
in favor. They show as clearly, too, the fact that no one knew exactly how 
to go to work. I quote the resolution of 1838: 

"Students of the third year in the Normal School, shall be admitted 
as participants and assistants in the Royal Colleges of Paris, under the 
directions of the Professors, in the classes corresponding to the depart- 
ments of their studies and the aggregations to which they are tending. 

"These exercises shall follow the Easter festival and continue six 
weeks at least, two months at most. The Director of the Normal School 
and the Principals of the Royal Colleges of Paris shall confer in order to 
devise measures relative to the execution of the present resolution. At 
the termination of the conferences they shall draw up and present to the 
Minister a special report. 

"Those students of the Normal School who shall have been admitted 
to the above position shall be entrusted with classes in the Royal Colleges 
at the time of the sittings of the general competitions so as to fill the 
places of professors absent by reason of service. 

"Students whose assistance should prove to be necessary in such cases 
should be designated by the Director, on the call of the Inspector of the 
Academy of Paris, after having received orders from the Minister." * 

How fully all these regulations were carried out it is impossible to 
say. Dr. Bache, writing in 1839, says of the School : "It is in turn, in- 
ferior to the seminaries for secondary education in Berlin, in the absence 
of arrangements for practical teaching." •'' 

But it should be stated that Dr. Bache's visit was in 1838, before 
the resolutions just quoted had been put into execution. 

Dr. Barnard, writing in 1872, says : "Each year the students who 
graduated were to be distributed among the colleges of Paris, and drilled 
for several weeks under the direction of a professor." ^ 

One other matter worthy of mention and that comes more nearly 
under this head than any other, is discipline. It will be remembered that 
in a former chapter attention was called to the rather severe disciplinary 
methods of the school as reorganized in 1810. No great change had 
been made. 

There were still in force regulations the most minute and restrictions 
the most exacting, and there was allowed little opportunity for free vol- 
untary activity even in the smaller affairs of life. This is all the more 
strange when we consider the maturity of the students (in 1837 only 
5 out of 90 were under 19 years of age) and the fact that all were working 
for responsible collegiate positions. 

Evidently the shibboleth of the Revolution, "liberte, egalite, frater- 
nite," had not yet brought forth its full fruitage. 



♦Rendu : Code Universitaire, p. 800. 
^Bache : Education in Europe, p. 449. 
^Barnard : National Education, (1872) p. 326. 



i^cole Normale Superieure 49 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE NORMAL SCHOOL FROM 1848 TO THE REORGANIZATION 
OF THE PRESENT TIME. 



BRIEF SUMMARY. 

The Normal School was now fully and generously established. Its 
work from 1848 to the reorganization that is now in progress is full of 
interest and well worth a careful study along any one of many different 
lines. It would repay one, for example, to make a study of the effects 
of governmental changes upon the school and the reflex influence of the 
school upon the government. It would be equally profitable to trace the 
growth and development of the work in science showing the school's 
influence thru its laboratories. It would be interesting to look upon it 
as strictly a professional school, a pedagogical institution — a normal 
school, — and to try to answer such questions as these : "Has it been 
true to its name?" "Has it performed its own specific function?" "In its 
development has it kept step with this new and growing science of Peda- 
gogy?" There are inviting fields, also, along more prosaic lines, in follow- 
ing its courses of study, its teachers and students. What more inviting 
than to follow the latter as year after year they have left the school and 
taken up the work of life for which they have there been fitted, and thus 
to try to estimate the great school's contribution to the growing manhood 
of France? Such questions and many others crowd upon one, but space 
forbids. It is not possible to do more than briefly sketch the work of this 
half century. A glance backward, however, may assist us in our hasty 
look forward. 

We note first, the school of 1794 which, like the gourd of Jonah, 
sprang up in a night, as it were, and passed away with the next day's sun. 
It was not, however, forgotten, but was revived in the great university 
scheme of Napoleon in 1808 and 1810. But the part the school was 
playing during the next decade told against rather than for the principles 
of government which had given it life and which were supplying it with 
nourishment. So, not strangely, its death sentence was pronounced and 
it ceased to be. But the fact that the school had gained a place for itself 
in the French consciousness is clearly seen in the persistence of the idea 
during the years of suppression and its gradual emergence when once the 
opportunity was offered. This is shown also by the hearty recognition 
accorded it on the event of its reappearance and the generous support 
offered for its reorganization and equipment. 

Better now than at any earlier time can we appreciate the difficulties 
under which the school had thus far labored. It had had no regularly 
outlined courses of study. Tho there had been brilliant men on its faculty 
there had really been no unity of aim, no directing hand capable of 
utilizing all its resources in such a way as to make of it what its name 
announced it to be, the 6cole Normale. 

Tho it was ever an institution of the boarding school type where all 
its students lived within its walls, not till the very close of the last 
period did it have a home of its own or even temporary quarters at all 
adequate for its work and plans. 

But all that was now changed. The institution came to the close of 
that period strong and active. It was strong not only in material equip- 
ment but as well in intellectual resource and in the affections of the people. 



so Scale Normale Superieure 

It was active as is the young man conscious of his strength and impatiently 
awaiting the future. It now faced its great opportunities with an intelli- 
gent aim clearly perceived, a carefully outlined plan of work and a material 
equipment that left little to be desired. Its buildings were new, well con- 
structed and well arranged to make a pleasing working home for one 
hundred students. True, the school was tied to the past by its "police" 
regulations and continued to be so tied for a long time rendering im- 
possible what we understand by a free development of the inner life. 
But aside from that its outlook was hopeful. 



GENERAL OUTLINE OF PERIOD. 

The Revolution of 1848 was at first favorable to the school. Under 
M. Carnot, Minister of Public Instruction from February to July of that 
year, it received not only some marks of immediate favor but also many 
indications of intelligent management and generous treatment for the 
future. But M. Carnot's term of office as Minister soon came to an end 
and, unfortunately, his successors for several years, even up to 1856, ^vere 
not particularly friendly to the school, if indeed we are not compelled to 
think them hostile. Buisson says, "Under the ministries of MM. de Fal- 
loux, de Perieu, Fortoul, the Normal School was exposed to grievous 
hostilities." ^ And certainly, some of the changes introduced point in 
that direction. But still, they may be interpreted as no more than unin- 
telligent attempts at reorganization. This can be said of even the definite 
plan of suppression formed in 1852, because this suppression was planned 
to be but temporary — merely to give greater opportunity for reorganization. 
At any rate, tho the school was seriously handicapped by such legislative 
meddling, its permanent existence was not once really threatened and it 
suffered only temporary embarrassment, adverse legislation being later 
corrected. By i860 this experimental stage, so to speak, was passed and 
the school allowed to continue its work, mainly along the old lines, very 
largely unmolested. 

The period as a whole has been one of prosperity. In their quiet 
retreat, perhaps I should say in their cloistral seclusion (I cannot go so 
far as some and say "in their closely guarded prison-house"), professors 
and students alike, deeply engaged in their literary and scientific studies, 
have pursued the even tenor of their ways quite unmindful of the changing 
events without. The school has made but little noise, being well content 
in the enjoyment of peace and the opportunities for work. Changes have 
been made from time to time, it is true, some of which will be mentioned 
later, but nothing radical occurred until November, 1903, when the re- 
organization that is now being worked out was decreed. 

3- 
GRATUITY. 

In the early years instruction in the Normal School had been abso- 
lutely gratuitous, the principle extending even so far as to include board, 
clothing and books. But changes were inaugurated in the thirties, requir- 
ing the expense to be borne by the student unless he could become the 
holder of a scholarship, of which, however, as already noted, there were 
not enough to go around. These changes were not wholly satisfactory 
and one of the first measures recommended by the new Minister, M. 

^Buisson : Dictionnaire de Pedagagie, p. 768. 



Bcole Normale Superieure 51 

Carnot, was the return to the old principle of gratuity. The reasons for 
this change I give in the words of the report of the Committee of Public 
Instruction : 

"The principle of gratuitous instruction in the normal schools is justi- 
fied by considerations which spring from the very self-sacrificing devotion 
marking the opening of the career of the students, destined, most of them, 
to the position of an ordinary teacher. The vocation demands an ardent 
zeal, an abnegation of talent which resigns itself to labor without fame, 
and a stubborn toil which undermines the strongest constitutions. More- 
over, for this mission, or priestly office of instructor, as it may well be 
called, the candidates are recruited almost always from the poor. It is 
therefore necessary that an absolute rule be established, that talent in no 
place shall be thrust back, or poverty be an obstacle." 2 

This return to the principle of gratuitous instruction was certainly in 
the Ime of improvement and has remained the policy of the school up 
. to the present time. It has not included, however, in these later years, 
the matter of clothing. That each student provides for himself. 

4- 
AGGREGATION. 

One of the most temporarily disastrous of these changes had refer- 
ence to the manner of aggregation. It will be remembered that heretofore 
this examination was taken immediately upon graduation and that upon its 
successful issue the agrege was placed upon the available list for the 
filling of vacancies that might occur. Now, however, in the hopes of 
raising the standard of scholarship and pedagogic skill, it was decided 
that this examination should be postponed three years and that the interval 
should be spent in some sort of apprenticeship in the lyceums. This 
arrangement made the licientiate degree the only immediate goal of the 
normal course, and this degree, even for the students in the section of 
letters, could not now be taken before the close of the second year. 

Accompanying this change in the time of the aggregation examination 
was another even more disquieting. The six aggregations already men- 
tioned plus another, added later, in natural sciences, had, in 185 1, been 
reduced to two, one in letters and one in science. Working in harmony 
with these retrograde movements the separation into divisions for the 
third 3'ear's work had been discontinued. So that now there was almost 
a dead uniformity, no longer opportunity for developing individual apti- 
tude save as that might be done through the single differentiation between 
letters and science. This last step sacrificed as well the only strictly pro- 
fessional phase of the work, for this, it will be remembered, was done in 
the divisions of the third year. It is true that the need of such preparation 
was not lost sight of, for Article 4 of the reorganization law of 1852 says : 
"During the entire course, the instruction of each section has for its 
object the giving to the students not only an instruction strong and 
accurate, but as well all the accomplishments necessary to a teacher." ' 
And later, taking up the work of the third year, the decree begins by 
saying: "The instruction of the third year "has for its immediate and 
special end the forming of teachers * * * * finally, and especially the 
forming of them in the science and the practice of methods." * It is well 
to refer again, in this connection, to the plan outlined for a three years' 
apprenticeship before aggregation. But all this was even more vague 

^Barnard: National Education, (1872) quoted on page 326. 
^Barrau: Legislation de ITnstruction Publique, p. 390. 
*Barrau : Ibid., p. 394. 



52 Ecole Normale Superieure 

and indefinite than the regulations set aside so that we note a distinct 
professional loss, and a loss that has not yet been fully regained. 

M. Liard well sums up the whole situation in the following: "Hereto- 
fore there had been different aggregations according to the natural subdi- 
visions of studies, philosophy, history, literature, grammar, mathematical, 
physical and natural sciences. These were reduced to two, one for all 
that pertains to letters, another for all that pertains to the sciences, 
"omnibus" aggregations, bearing upon everything, scattering effort, dis- 
concerting the aptitudes, favoring the mediocres, but at the same time, 
checking ambitions and holding the spirit almost to the earth level of 
literal knowledge." ^ 

These changes were decidedly unpopular and became the most potent 
cause for the lack of interest in the school, the consequent falling off in 
the attendance and the resulting inability of the educational department to 
fill the vacancies in the lyceums and the colleges. They brought forth 
much criticism and raised a storm of protest. The public disfavor was 
finally heeded and the old conditions, in the main, gradually restored. 



5- 

ADMISSION. 

In the early fifties there were changes also in the admission require- 
ments, making admission even more difficult, and, in general, safeguarding 
the interests of the public. The more important of these changes, generally 
looked upon as in the line of improvement, have since prevailed and should 
be mentioned. 

Before admission _the students were required to submit to a rigorous 
physical examination by the physician of the school, and if found to be 
afflicted with any weakness or any malady that might lessen their future 
usefulness or in any way prove a menace to the health of their pupils they 
were rejected. 

Among the documents now required to be deposited at the time of 
registration for admission to the Academy examination, or, as it is now 
called "the examination of the first degree," is one giving data not only 
as to ability and attainments on the part of the candidate but also as to 
matters that enable the department to look into the condition and char- 
acter of his ancestry. I will state this requirement in the words of the 
latest "programme" : 

"7. — A document dated and signed by the candidate (curriculum vitse) 
indicating the profession of his father, the home of his family, and the 
places where he has lived since the age of fifteen years, the establishments 
in which he has studied or closed his studies, the success which he has 
met in the classes and in his examinations." ^ 

This document is commonly interpreted in such a way as to give the 
greatest latitude in the investigation, and the time now elapsing between 
registration and examination, often six months as against less than one 
month as provided in 1834, gives plenty of time for the same. And the 
time is so used that the candidates with undesirable antecedents are 
rejected, thus securing for the school only the best of student material. 

And, too, the admission examinations, especially the one of "second 
degree," the one taken at the school in Paris, was made much more severe. 



^Liard : L'Enseignement Superieure en France, II : 245. 
^Programme des Conditions d'Admission a I'ficole Normale Super- 
ieure, 1903, p. 4. 



Ecole Normale Supericure S3 

Under the new regulations this examination is much more than a mere 
matter of form; at least one hour must be used in the testing of each 
candidate as against an hour for all the students of a section, and this 
examination must cover all the main subjects formerly studied. 

The age limits were raised one year, being now i8 and 24. This of 
course gave greater maturity of judgment as well as better physical 
equipment. 

CURRICULUM. 



There were also, in 1852, as there have been at various times since, 
some changes in the curriculum, but they have been neither many nor 
great and space forbids their discussion. Indeed the remarkable thing 
is that there have not been more and greater changes. To show both how 
slight the changes have been and the nature of the work during recent 
years, I will give a brief outline of the courses as officially announced 
for 1889. The outline would be practically the same for any one of the 
last twenty years 

"First Year. 

Letters — Sciences — 

Philosophy. Mathematics. 

Ancient History. « Chemistry. 

Greek Language and Literature. Mineralog3^ 

Latin Language and Literature. Zoologj'. 

French Language and Literature. Botany. 

Grammar. German and English. 
German and English. 

"Second Year. 

Llistory of Philosophy. Mathematics. 

Greek Literature. Physics. 

Latin Literature. Geology. 

French Literature. German and English. 

Mediaeval and Modern History. 

Geography. 

German and English. 

"Third Year. 

Conferences preparatory to the dif- Conferences preparatory to the dif- 
ferent orders of aggregation. ferent orders of aggregation. In 

the third year the students of the 
section of natural sciences pre- 
pare themselves for the licentiate 
of that order. 
"In addition to the above courses, work done in the school itself, the 
students follow a certain number of courses in the College of France, in 
the Faculty of Letters and in that of Sciences." ~' 

7- 

BUILDINGS. 

The buildings erected in the forties were planned for the accommo- 
dation of 100 students, but that number was often exceeded, resulting in 
unsatisfactory crowding. In 1865 accommodations were added for ten, 

"Statistique de I'Enseignement Superieure, 1889, p. 700. 



54 &cole Normale Superieure 

and the enrollment did not go much above no till 1880, when the Depart- 
ment of Natural Sciences was more fully developed. But in 1882 with 
the discontinuance of the office of Chaplain, the old chapel was utilized 
and some relief given. In 1883 additional adjoining ground was secured 
and an adequate building erected for the new science department. Again 
in the '90's additional room and other facilities were provided for the 
department of physics and for the library. About the same time the 
hospital was removed from the main building to the one formerly used 
by Pasteur as private laboratory. During the past twenty years the en- 
rollment has been about 130, seldom going more than one or two above 
or below. The number asked for each year has been, for several years, 
about 45 ; 44, — 20 for the science and 24 for the letters section, — has been 
a common call.^ 

8. 
DISCIPLINE. 

Another change well worthy of mention has been taking place during 
the period now under discussion. And a change it is, perhaps more im- 
portant and more far-reaching than any other mentioned. It is a change, 
too, in which the people of America are especially interested and with the 
spirit of which they have the warmest sympathy. I have reference to the 
changed attitude toward the student with respect to his capacity for self- 
government. The reader will readily recall the "police" regulations of 
early times, also a former statement to the effect that up to 1848 they still 
prevailed. Nor were any material changes made in these particulars in 
the semi-reorganization following the governmental changes of 1848. In- 
deed, it is true that with the changes of these days the spirit of liberalism 
ever fostered in the school "came in for some measure of distrust.' And 
tho such mistrust did not show itself in any act of avowed hostility it 
yet is clearly manifested in the reiteration of the old attitude of repression. 
In no better way can I show the spirit of the times and at the same time 
the hampering restrictions under which the Normal School labored, than 
by quoting a few lines from Liard as he speaks upon this very point : 

"Everything is regulated, year by year, day by day, hour by hour. 
* * * * There is no place for the initiative, no liberty of movement. 
Grammar, literature, history, philosophy, are cut off in slices and dosed out 
by years ; the method to be followed is fixed in advance ; history following 
the chronological order and not otherwise touched ; the level where 
thought shall stop is fixed in the same way. * * * * The regulations 
take the student when he rises in the morning, a student from 20 to 25 
years old, and follow him up to his hour of retiring, prescribing for him 
everything, point by point, his steps, his walks, his hours of study, his mode 
of work, his silence, his readings and his prayers." ^ 

The changed attitude of which I speak was shown publicly and promi- 
nently for the first time in 1866 when the services of the old time "usher" 
were dispensed with. This official had belonged to the Normal School 
staff from the beginning in 1810. He was not a teacher nor had he any 
of the functions of an instructor. He was employed merely to put into 
execution the "police" regulations. His duty was to watch the students 
day and night, during study hour and recreation period ; to accompany 
them upon their walks and to their recitations in order to prevent, if pos- 



^Much information in regard to these and other details are to be found 
in the annual collections of laws and acts of public instruction 
published since 1848: Recueil des Lois et Acts de LTnstruction 
Publique. 
^Liard : L'Enseignement Superieur en France, II : 246. 



Scale Normals Superieure 55 

sible, the slightest infraction of the thousand and one senseless restric- 
tions; and if not possible to prevent them, to see that punishment fol- 
lowed.^" 

But M. Duruy, Director of the school at this time, thought such an 
official not needed. He thought one of the best accomplishments a teacher 
could have was an ability to govern himself. He further thought that 
nowhere could that ability be better gained than right there in the Normal 
School. He therefore abolished the office and threw the students upon 
their own honor. The wisdom of his measure has long since been con- 
ceded by all. To us this is no surprise. The surprising thing is that in an 
institution which had more than once, and for good reasons, been stigma- 
tized as a "nest of liberalism," and whose work had from the very first, 
been characterized by the spirit of free and independent research, the 
strange thing is, I say, that the "usher" was tolerated as long as he was. 

The liberalizing work begun by the abolition of the "usher" has con- 
tinued, and tho there is not today the freedom that American students 
enjoy in all our schools, yet they have it in much larger measure than m 
former years and the time cannot be far distant when all such unnatural 
and unpedagogical restrictions will be but relics of the past. 



LABORATORIES. 

The word "laboratory" has been used in connection with this school 
even from its very early days, and the school has ever been in the very 
fore front in its use of this agency so essential in all true scientific work. 
In the erection of its first buildings, in the forties, better laboratory fa- 
cilities were desired and received. That was true again when, about forty 
years later, a new building was erected for the department of natural 
sciences. A botanical garden was later laid out on grounds adjoining this 
building. So that today the Normal School is equipped with chemical, 
physical meteorological and biological laboratories second to few if any 
in all France. 

In these laboratories have been trained, during the last half century, 
the best scientists of France, and from them have come forth important 
scientific discoveries. They were not used for research laboratories, how- 
ever, till the days of the great Pasteur. And that eminent scientist on 
resigning the deanship of the Faculty of Science of Lille to become the 
Administrator and Director of Scientific studies in the Normal School, in 
1857, created something of a sensation in the Ministerial Bureau by asking 
for a private chemical laboratory and for an assistant in the same. But 
he was granted both and was thus enabled to continue his investigations, 
the outcome of which have brought so much fame both to him and to the 
Normal School. 

The research work begun by Pasteur was taken up by others, both 
professors and students, and continued even to the present time so that 
Buisson is undoubtedly right in his claim that it is the work in its labora- 
tories and libraries that has really given the school its great strength. He 
says : "It is that which permits it to give to France professors not only 
well instructed but yet more — men of wisdom, spirits truly original who 
give new life to that which they touch. * * * * They cultivate science 



i^For an interesting description of the "Usher" and his duties see 
"Pictures of the French," by Jules Janin, Balzac, Cormenin and 
others, pp. 257-264. 



S6 £cole Normale Superieure 

for its own sake; they busy themselves in personal works, in original in- 
vestigations." ^ 

10. 

BREADTH OF SCOPE. 

In the early days of this school Napoleon fondly hoped that the time 
would soon come, indeed his circular of 1813 said it had already come, 
when it could furnish all the teachers needed in the secondary schools of 
France — the Royal and Communal Colleges. But that time ha§ never 
come. Nor do I think that, save in the mind of Napoleon, it has ever 
been strongly desired or planned. The very limit of its equipment would 
make such a conclusion wholly out of the question. The present equip- 
ment is adequate for only about 130 students, and even these facilities it 
has enjoyed for only twenty years. 

As a matter of fact, during its entire history from 1810, the school 
has enrolled less than 3000 students, all told, and not more than one-half 
of that number have succeeded in obtaining the rank of aggregation from 
which alone have appointments been made to fill professorships. 

Up to 1866, according to Barnard, about 1700 students had been en- 
rolled. Of that number 788 had obtained this coveted rank: "113 in the 
department of grammar, 268 in letters, 56 in philosophy, 60 in history, 201 
in mathematics, 70 in physics and 20 in modern languages." - I have not 
at hand the statistics for the entire period since 1866, but as fairly illus- 
trative of the period I give those from 1878 to 1888, inclusive. During 
those eleven years 408 of the students of the Normal School were success- 
ful in the examination for aggregation, an average of a trifle over 27 per 
year. During these same eleven years 613 candidates educated elsewhere 
received the rank.^ 

But to stop at this point and infer that the Normal School has been 
no more than one of many institutions fitting for these high college posi- 
tions would be greatly to underestimate the scope and importance of its 
work. Not alone thru its students in the full professorships in the sec- 
ondary schools of France has it shown its influence. Nearly all of the 
students who have not succeeded in obtaining the high rank of aggregation 
have, nevertheless, occupied responsible positions in the colleges as assist- 
ant professors or as other officials. And if the school has not filled all 
the professorial chairs, if preparation elsewhere has also enabled men to 
pass the severe examinations, the glory of the school is not one whit 
dimmed by such a fact. It has from the beginning to the end of its his- 
tory, set the pace, so to speak, in the education of this grade of teachers. 
Its preparation has been the standard. And other institutions that have 
cared and dared to compete have been obliged to add to their equip- 
ment and to improve the character of their instruction before being able 
to enter the lists. So it is no exaggeration to say that the Superior Nor- 
mal School has elevated the character of all the higher educational insti- 
tutions of France * * * * that it has indeed been, for nearly three- 
quarters of a century, the "superior" school of higher instruction. 

So much for its work as forming teachers and influencing the general 
work of education. But that is not all. In still another way has it served 
a noble purpose and exerted a powerful influence upon the developing and 
expanding life of intellectual France. Not all its students have become 



^Buisson : Dictionnaire. Ibid., p. 768. 
^Barnard : National Education, (1872) p. 331. 
^Statistique de L'Enseignement Superieur, p. 705. 



£coIe Normale Superieure 57 

teachers,* and some of those have served only ten years of their original 
engagement. They have then entered upon what really became their life 
work, that pursuit for which the specialized work of the Normal School 
had so well prepared them — journalism, authorship, scientific research or 
what-not. In the words of Barnard, writing in 1872, whose statement is 
very similar to others made by French writers of much more recent date, 
this is well brought out. Indeed the strongest criticism of the school in 
recent years has been that it has seemingly forgotten its own specific 
functions in emphasizing so strongly and in doing so much along the line 
mentioned by Dr. Barnard. The statement referred to runs as follows : 
"In preparing learned and able teachers for the youth, the Normal 
School has also educated distinguished authors and savants. There is 
no branch of literature or science, which its pupils have not cultivated with 
success and honor. By whom are most of the prizes, annually given by 
the Academies, borne off, if not by the former pupils of the Normal 
School ?" 5 



*The ten years engagement has always held, but yet, in 1814, a regula- 
tion was passed in accordance with which one might be released 
from that engagement by paying into the treasury of the school 
1000 francs for each year of residence therein. See Rendu : Code 
Universitaire, note on page 225. 

^Barnard: National Education, (1872) p. 331. 



58 £cole Nortnale Superieure 

CHAPTER IX. 

REORGANIZATION NOW IN PROGRESS, (i) 

From all that has been said of the work of these closing fifty years 
of the life of the school, the conclusion forces itself upon us that the 
Scole Norniale has been what we should term a normal school only in 
name. It may have been something more, it has not been a normal school. 
With absolutely no place on its program given to pedagogical subjects — 
psychology, pedagogy, history of education, philosophy of education and- 
the rest; with the old term of practice teaching reduced from eight weeks 
to fifteen days, and not even the fifteen days regarded seriously; and with 
every emphasis placed upon academic and research work, how has the 
school dififered from a university? The answer is simple. It has not 
differed. It has been, as one French writer says, "the sole university of 
Paris for 50 years." The only real difference is well pointed out in the 
following quotation : "Since the universities have been reconstituted, the 
Normal School is distinguished from them only by the small number of 
its students and the fact that they are recruited by competition and submit 
to the internat." 

Formerly there was no objection to this departure. There was no de- 
mand for pedagogically equipped teachers in the secondary and higher 
schools of France. Prospective teachers for such positions did not need 
to give careful thought to the science and art of "teaching. Thoro academic 
equipment in the subjects to be taught was looked upon as the only es- 
sential qualification. Nor in this did the French differ from ourselves. 
They and we have, for fifty years and more, been increasingly giving our 
elementary teachers opportunities for perfecting themselves in this most 
difficult of all arts, and then requiring them to prove acquaintance with 
the art before allowing them to undertake the work of instruction ; but for 
our secondary and higher teaching we have proceeded upon the assump- 
tion that scholarship is the only sine qua non. 

■ That assumption, however, has been disproved in France and is being 
disproved in America. True, there are still in both countries many per- 
sons, even many holding positions in institutions of secondary and higher 
education, who speak slightingly of professional preparation for any but 
the elementary teacher, who speak the word 'pedagogy' with a sneer and 
'method' with a laugh and who look with a sort of condescending pity 
upon one engaged in acquiring for himself or in aiding others to acquire 
such preparation. But yet, there as here, the slighting remark is made 
only by those wholly ignorant of both the science and the art, whose 
ignorance is in no way more clearly made known than by such remarks 
unless it be by their own defective teaching. 

France, I say, has disproved the assumption. In no better way can I 
show that she believes it disproved than by outlining, even though briefly, 
the reorganization of the Normal School, and giving some reasons for 
the same. 

This reorganization, which was decreed on the loth of November, 
1903, is not something suddenly sprung upon the school by a hostile act of 

^My chief sources of information for this chapter are an article in 
La Revue de Paris" of Dec. i, 1903, "La Reorganization de 
L'Ecole normale," by M. Gustave Lanson, and one in "Revue In- 
ternationale de I'Enseignement" of Jan. 15, 1904, "La reform des 
agregations et la reorganization de I'Ecole normale." 



Rcole Normale Superieure 59 

the Ministry. On the contrary, the forces and circumstances which have 
made it necessary have been for many years working in the clear light of 
all. Some change had to be made and everybody knew it. 

With the intellectual and educational awakening that France has been 
experiencing during the last 30 years-.-with her new renaissance— there has 
been an unprecedented demand for teachers. And from no source has 
this demand been greater or more persistent than from the colleges and 
universities which have so rapidly increased during the latter part of this 
period. This demand the Normal School could not supply. Reference has 
already been made to the fact that from 1878 to 1888 a greater number 
of agreges were prepared elsewhere than in the Normal School. From 
that time to the present, owing to the very necessities of the case, the 
Sorbonne has made it one of its chief ends to prepare students for the 
examination leading to aggregation or, in other words, to equip men for 
secondary and superior teaching. This great institution and the Normal 
School, strangely enough, have been rivals in this work, and during the 
last four years the former has succeeded in turning out a greater number 
of agreges than the latter, 136 as against 126, though both together have 
not been able to furnish as many as called for — 332. 

But during these years of great demand the call has been not alone 
for more professors but as well for better prepared ones, that is, for men 
as thoroly grounded and skilled in the science and art of teaching as in the 
subjects to be taught. This, pedagogical equipment, however, the Normal 
School could not give even tho it was supposed to be its chief function. 
It could not give it because it had not done so and because it was already 
being taxed to its utmost to keep up with its powerful rival in the work 
which it had been doing. The University of Paris could not give it be- 
cause it was so entirely outside its field. As a matter of fact, the two 
institutions were duplicating courses and fighting to a finish with neither 
one able to satisfy the most pressing educational need of the time, tho the 
two were practically the nation's only hope for a satisfactory solution of 
its problem. What was to be done? The educational authorities answered 
the question by the decree of reorganization. In attempting to give in a 
few words the objects sought to be accomplished by that decree, I cannot 
do better than to quote from the article referred to : 

"The decree of Nov. 11 decided in substance that the Normal School 
.shall be reunited to the University of Paris : not to be abolished and thus 
to disappear, but in order to make its original function its chief one. The 
Normaliens shall be, together with the boursiers, students of the University 
of Paris in the pursuit of scientific culture ; and the boursiers shall be, 
together with the pensioners of the street of Ulm, members of the Normal 
School for preparation of a pedagogical character. Two questions which 
have been very pressing during these later years receive thus their settle- 
ment: (i) that of the relations between the Normal School and the Uni- 
versity of Paris; (2) that of professional preparation of the teachers in 
the secondary schools." - 

In speaking of some of the advantages of such an arrangement the 
writer goes on to say : 

"The decree makes possible that which with their single means they," 
(that is, the University and the Normal School), "were not able to do. 
On the other hand, it frees the University from a work which was not its 
own and which it could not undertake without deviating from its true 
destination. Circumstances had compelled it to form professors : but its 
function is to make, if not learned men, at least workmen of science. In 
receiving into itself the Normal School, in entrusting to it the professional 
preparation of those of its students who are planning to teach, the Uni- 



2Revue de Paris: Ibid., p. 521. 



6o £cole Normale Supcrieure 

versity gives itself up wholly to its own particular work. The University, 
a scientific work shop ; the Normal School, a pedagogical seminary : the 
students enroll in one for scientific purposes, in the other for the art of 
teaching; here we see matters arranged in their just relations, harmony 
in the place of discord." ^ 

What the change really amounts to is this : the incorporation of the 
Normal School into the University of Paris, so that its official name might 
well be "The Pedagogical Department of the University of Paris." The 
details of the arrangement have not yet been fully worked out. Such 
undertakings consume much time for their final and satisfactory adjust- 
ment. The plan in outline, however, is announced. It is for all the 
students of the University (the University in its broadest sense as includ- 
ing the Normal School) who look forward to teaching to spend their first 
two j'ears in the University for their purely academic studies, then go to 
the Normal School for a closing year of professional work. As a portion 
of this latter attention will be given to the practical aspects of teaching 
not omitting even practice teaching itself tho only college positions are 
in view. 

Considerable opposition to the plan has shown itself in some quarters, 
especially from former students of the Normal. For the most part, how- 
ever, this opposition seems to be based upon sentiment rather than upon 
reason, and it is hoped that skilful management in the details of the re- 
organization and rearrangement will cause it to pass away. 



^Revue de Paris : Ibid., p. 530. 



£colc Normale Superieure 6i 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

1. Andre: Nos Maitres Aujourdhui; 3 volumes (1875). 

2. Andre: Nos Maitres Hier (1872). 

3. Bache : Education in Europe (1837). 

4. Baird : An article on "The University of France" in the American 

Quarterly Review, Vol. 9, Pages 17-58 (1836). 

5. Barante: Histoire de la Convention Nationale; 6 volumes (1853). 

6. Barnard: National Education (1872). 

7. Barrau: Legislation de I'lnstruction Publique (1853). 

8. Buisson : Dictionaire de Pedagogic ; two parts, each of two volumes 

(1885). Special references: Articles on "ficole normale de I'An 
III," "ficole normale superieur," and "Convention," all in the first 
volume of the first part. 

9. Compayre: History of Pedagogy. Translated by W. H. Payne (1885). 

10. Compayre: Les Doctrines de I'Education; 2 vols. (1880). 

11. Cousin: Report of the State of Public Education in Prussia, translated 

by Mrs. Austin (1834). 

12. Dupuy, Paul (et. al.) : Le Centenaire de L'ficole Normale (1895). 

13. Greard : La Legislation de I'lnstruction Primaire en France; 3 vol- 

umes (1874). 

14. Guillaume : Proces — verbaux du Comite d'lnstruction Publique de la 

Convention Nationale 

15. Hippeau : LTnstructiorf en France pendant la Revolution. Debats 

Legislative (1883). Special reference: Pages 177-182. 

16. Hippeau: LTnstruction en France pendant la Revolution (1881). Spec- 

ial reference : Pages 408-423. 

17. Janin, Balzac, Cormenin and Others: Pictures of the French. Special 

reference: P. P. 257-264 for description of the "Usher" and his work. 

18. Larousse : Grand Dictionnaire Universal du XIX Siecle. Special refer- 

ence : Article on "Ecole normale superieure." Vol. 7, P. 112. 

19. Liard : L'Enseignenient Superieur en France. Two Vol., the first pub- 

lished in 1888, the second in 1894. 

20. Melon: L'Enseignenient Superieur et Technigue en France (1893). 

21. Moniteur, I'Ancien, de la Revolution Francais ; Reimpression (1860- 

1870). Special reference: Vols. 22-24. 

22. Montgaillard : Histoire de France; q Vols. (1827). Special references: 

Vol. 9. P. P. 296-311 and Vol. IX, P. 107. 

23. Paroz : Histoire de la Pedagogic (iSSo). 

24. Recuil des Lois et Actes de 'Instruction Publique (1848-1903). 

25. Rendu M. : Code Universitaire (1846). 

26. Rendu A.: Systeme de I'Universite de France (1816). 

27. Simon: L'ficole (1881). 

28. Simon: La Reforme de I'Enseignement (1874). 
20. Statistique de I'Enseignement Superieur (1888). 

30. Taine: Modern Regime; 2 vols. (1894). Special reference: Vol. 2, 

Pages 137-265. Book Sixth, "Public Instruction." 

31. Wolff: "Les Doctrines de I'Education Revolutionnaire," found in E. 

Faguet's "L'Oeuvre de la Revolution Francais," Pages 107-215 

(1901). 

PERIODICALS. 
2,2. Revue Historique. 
2,i. Revue Internationale de I'Enseignement. Special reference : article, 

"La reforme des agregations et la reorganisation de I'ficole normale 

superieure (Jan. 15. 1904). 

34. Revue des deux Mondes. 

35. Revue de Paris. Special Reference: Article "La Reorganization de 

rficole normale" (Dec. ist, 1903). 

36. Revue Universitaire. Special Reference: Vol. I, 1895, P. P. 351-387. 



i^i B iBB7 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 757 012 A 



